Lyoko and the Truth of Aelita
by AngonceNui
Summary: The supercomputer was not complete. Too many components were unavailable nor could he acquire the resources to construct them himself. Not if he were to complete it on time. And there are limits to even a quantum computer. If he was to have any hope of destroying Project Carthage, a terrible sacrifice would have to be made. Cover art by Aelita-Ichigo. Rated K for now.
1. Memories Part 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko. That's why it's a fan fiction. Cover art by Aelita-Ichigo.  
**

 **Author's Note: This story idea came from _gaara king of the sand._ As always, any form of reviews are welcome. And for those of you reading my other story, I have not abandoned it. In fact, I am almost halfway through the next chapter and hope to have it done at latest by the end of the year. So without further ado, I hope enjoy the story.**

It was a day like any other for Aelita. She'd woken up in the morning, had breakfast with her papa, and been given her homework for the day. By the time she'd finished, her papa had returned from Kadic. She'd begged him in the past to let her attend the school where he taught, but he always insisted otherwise.

"It's not safe, Aelita," he would tell her. "Besides, it's better this way."

She knew he was right. She knew the men in black that had taken her mother were still after them. So she dropped the matter on most days, got to work, and, when her father returned home, went over the day's lesson – unless it was Sunday. And it had been one fateful Sunday when she had come home from riding her bike (she enjoyed riding past Kadic and watching the students there enjoy the weekend – even if she would never be able to experience it with them) and decided to go up to her room. She'd felt lonely that day and wanted time to herself to think. The piano downstairs played softly as her papa resumed his playing, giving Aelita a comforting melody to listen to as she sat alone in her room. It was times like this that Aelita had wished her papa hadn't put Mister Puck away.

"Now, you must remember where Mister Puck is, Aelita," her papa had said.

"Never you mind that, Aelita," he'd told her when she'd asked why. "Not yet, anyways. When – if – the time comes, you'll know."

The screech of brakes and the sound of slamming doors broke Aelita out of her reverie and silenced the beautiful melody. Aelita rushed to the window just in time to see two men in black yelling, it seemed, up at her. She stumbled against the wall in fright.

"Daddy!" She cried as her papa rushed to her door. "The men in black are here!"

"I know," he had said in a voice so calm it stifled her tears. "Do you remember where Mister Puck is?"

"Yes," Aelita said before her papa had led her downstairs.

The men in black were already there, right inside their house. Terror had filled Aelita's mind but her papa remained a calm in the midst of the storm, grabbing her hand and leading her into the basement and out into the garden below. After barricading the door to stop the men in black, her papa led her through the secret door leading to the sewers below. As they ran through the sewers it was then, and only then, that Aelita saw the fear, the uncertainty, in her papa's eyes as he glanced behind him to make sure she was close by.

"No, no…" She heard him mutter. "It's not ready yet!"

"What is it daddy?" Aelita had asked.

"Nothing, my dear," her papa assured her, but his voice shook and his gaze did not rest on Aelita too long. "Nothing-nothing at all."

At last they reached a ladder which led the way to the world above. The bright light nearly blinded Aelita as she climbed up, but her papa didn't slow down. Pulling her up onto the bridge, her father led her into an old factory and down to an old, rickety elevator.

"Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks," her papa told her. Without another word, they entered the lift and traveled far down the shaft.

The next sight Aelita would see was a massive room, the ceiling like a the roof of a cavern. Wires and equipment lay strewn everywhere and only a few monitors were lit. The massive dome in the center of the room was dark.

"But where are we?" She'd asked.

"In my laboratory," her papa had replied. His voice was grim...sad even. Aelita couldn't understand why. Her papa had always talked about his lab at school with such enthusiasm and joy.

"Come on," her papa told her, standing up from the console. "We don't have much time."

Once more he led her to the lift.

"Wait, Aelita," he said suddenly, seeming to have second thoughts and turning her around, kneeling down so they could be eye-to-eye.

"Yes, daddy?" Aelita asked. She'd never seen her papa like this before.

"I need to know something, Aelita," her papa said with a deep breath and a sigh. "Do you trust me?"

Aelita shook. From what she wasn't sure.

"O-of course, daddy!" She'd replied.

Her papa let out another sigh, but it was not one of relief.

"Good," he said finally, leading her to the lift once more. "Come on."

They journeyed even deeper into the earth. The air was cold and when the door open, Aelita gasped at the sight of a massive golden tower.

"I-is that a computer, daddy?" Aelita gaped in awe.

"Yes, Aelita, yes it is," her papa said, a hint of pride seeping into his voice. "But it's much more than just a computer. It's the solution to all of our problems. The men in black…Carthage…everything."

"That's great, daddy!" Aelita cried, hugging her father. She looked up at his eyes, hidden as always behind the sheen in his glasses. She thought she saw a tear trickle down his cheek. "But…what's the matter, daddy?"

Slowly, he knelt down and clasped his hands in hers.

"It's not finished, Aelita," he said. "And…and it won't ever be finished unless…"

His voice broke and his head sank. His eyes were squeezed tight as if holding back tears.

"Unless what, daddy?" Aelita asked.

"Unless you help me," her papa said at last, his voice choking. "I need your help, Aelita. Aelita, if I can complete my work here, we'll be free and you'll-you'll be safe…forever."

"W-what do you need me to do, daddy?" Aelita asked. Her papa was making her nervous, but she didn't want to show that. She wanted to be strong for her papa like he'd been for her. She wanted to help him.

The silence stretched into seconds until her papa let out a weary sigh, the sigh of a man with an unimaginable burden.

"Follow me," he whispered, keeping one of her hands in his and leading her behind the massive computer.

The sight that greeted Aelita was that of a chair, just big enough for her, extending out from within the computer. Through the hole it extended, Aelita could see the inner workings. Though she knew a lot about computers, Aelita was still a little disappointed. There wasn't quite as many flashy lights as she'd thought there would be.

"I need you to lie down here, Aelita," her papa instructed her.

"Why, papa?" Aelita asked as she laid down. "Does it need fixing? Are you too big to fit?"

Her papa chuckled, but it was dry and without humor. That, though, went over Aelita's head and she smiled, glad that her papa seemed to be getting back to normal.

"Yes, Aelita, I suppose I am," he sighed. "Now, you must remain absolutely still."

Aelita froze. She didn't want to disappoint her papa. He went over to the other side of the room, retrieving something before coming back to stand next to Aelita.

"Are you sure about this, Aelita?" He asked, squeezing her hand softly. "Do you trust me?"

Aelita was puzzled. Why was her papa asking these questions? Of course she trusted him! If she could make sure they would be safe forever, she'd do it in a heartbeat.

"Of course, daddy," she said, starting to tilt her head in puzzlement before remembering to lie still. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

Her papa sighed.

"Oh, Aelita," he said. "There are so many things that are wrong. But alas, there is little we can do about them now."

Aelita had never seen her papa look so unsure of himself, so she squeezed his hand as tight as he could.

"It's okay, daddy," she assured him. "I'll fix your computer. Then we'll be safe. Forever. Just like you said."

Her papa closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deep. When at last he spoke, his voice was steady once more.

"Very well, Aelita. Lie still now, my dear," he said, fastening Aelita's arms and legs into the chair.

Aelita's eagerness turned to confusion. How was she supposed to fix the computer if her arms were tied up? She never got a chance to ask.

"It's alright, Aelita," her papa said soothingly, tightening the last strap. "When we're finished, I'll take you to a new place, a new world. A world where we will be safe."

He stopped and a sigh slipped through and, gazing into her eyes, he placed a hand lightly on her cheek.

"I'll see you in a minute, honey," he whispered, love and sorrow coursing through his voice.

"S-see you in a minute, daddy," Aelita replied, uncertainty starting to slip in. A sharp pain suddenly pricked her arm. She tried to move her head but she couldn't. "Daddy?"

The tears were back in her father's eyes again.

"Please forgive me, Aelita," his voice cracked.

"Daddy…," Aelita called weakly as her body grew numb, the sensation of nothingness spreading from her arm. Her vision darkened and her mind went black.

The next thing she knew she was falling to the ground. Catching herself, Aelita landed on the mossy rock beneath her. _Where am I?_ She wondered as she looked around. She was in a forest, but something was off. Everything looked…strange.

"Daddy?" Aelita called out. "Daddy where are you?"

"Here I am Aelita," her father's voice boomed above her. Gone was the uncertainty and sadness she had heard moments before. Or was it moments before? Aelita wasn't sure anymore.

Turning around, Aelita saw that her father's voice was coming from a group of lights.

"Daddy!" She cried in relief as the lights surrounded her. "What's going on, daddy?"

Her father explained to her that they were on a virtual world called Lyoko, that it was still young and growing, and that he couldn't yet take human form. It was then that Aelita heard the clink of metallic feet. She turned see a bunch of strange brown animals that resembled roaches approaching her.

"Daddy? There are some strange looking creatures over there," she said. Their eyes started to glow and Aelita wondered if they were friendly, but her father's next words banished all such notions.

"Run, Aelita! Run!" He shouted just as pulses of light shot out of the creatures and zoomed past Aelita.

With a cry of panic, Aelita ran. She ran and ran until she tumbled head over heels into a massive, white tower. She resisted the urge to cry as she sat down in the center of the tower, the platform beneath her lighting up. It was then that her father spoke to her again.

"Aelita, I must make contact with Xana and persuade…it that we can live in peace."

"Who is Xana?" Aelita had asked.

"A multi-agent computer program I...created. It has achieved autonomy, and it's trying to destroy us now," Her father told her.

"But why, daddy?" Aelita asked.

She received no answer. He left as quickly as he had come, warning her only to stay within the tower no matter what. But eventually, she could wait no longer. She rushed out of the tower, fear and curiosity consuming her, only to behold a terrifying sight. Her beloved father was surrounded by giant wasps. From their stingers they shot pulses just like the roaches did.

"Daddy!" She cried in desperation as her father was struck.

"No, Aelita!" Her father shouted, equally desperate. "Get back to safety in the tower! You possess the Keys to Lyoko, Aelita. Xana must never get its hands on them, do you understand?"

More bolts hit him again and again, but his voice did not waver, and Aelita could only watch on in despair.

"It's over Aelita," her father said. "Xana is too powerful. It's as I feared. It's become a threat to all mankind. I must shut down the supercomputer!"

Aelita stumbled back into the tower in shock. Her father followed, reduced to a single glowing orb. Aelita's thoughts raced about at blinding speed.

"But does that mean we'll die?" Aelita asked in despair. Had her work, whatever it'd been, been for nothing?

"No," her father said, sending relief coursing through Aelita. But that was relief was soon quenched by his next words. "But you mustn't forget me, ever. Never forget, Aelita."

"Daddy!" Aelita cried out as her father faded away.

"I am so sorry," her father said, his voice fading. "I am so sorry, Aelita. So very, very sorry…"

"DADDY!" Aelita cried one last time.

* * *

Aelita shot up in her bed, the covers tumbling off her into a pile on the floor as her chest heaved. For a moment, she didn't know where she was. Then she remembered.

 _It was just a dream,_ the pinkette told herself, resting her head in her hands. _Just a dream. You're fine. You're in your room. Jeremy's on the floor below. You're fine…_

With a deep breath, Aelita lifted her head. Whatever her dream had been about was fading from her mind. Only one thing remained. A face. It was one she had seen so many times in her dreams and vision, but as of yesterday it had gained so much more meaning.

"Daddy?" She whispered to herself. "Are you really my daddy?"

A knock at the door startled her, but she soon regained her composure and called out.

"Come in!"

The door opened to reveal Jeremy standing at the door with a shy grin, and Aelita couldn't fight the one that spread across her own lips.

"Hey, Aelita," Jeremy said. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"No, not at all, Jeremy," Aelita smiled, keeping her dream to herself. She didn't need to worry Jeremy about it. He already had so many things to worry about as it was. "Did you need something?"

"Oh, no, not really," Jeremy rubbed his neck. "I just wanted to let you know that I've made some huge progress with Franz Hopper's diaries! I've already called the others and told them to meet us at the factory. What do you say, Aelita? Want to learn about your fa-,er, Franz Hopper?"

Aelita kept her smile, but her joy was tinged with uncertainty.

"That sounds wonderful, Jeremy," the pinkette said. "I'll get ready and meet you at the factory, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan," Jeremy grinned as he began to shut the door but paused for a moment and turned back, "You, uh, you sure you don't want someone to go with you? You know…for company?"

"Don't worry about me, Jeremy," Aelita said softly, assuring the boy as best she could. "I'll be fine. I just need some…time to myself."

Jeremy nodded in understanding.

"Ok, Aelita," he said. "See you there, then."

"See you there," Aelita replied as Jeremy left.

As the door shut, Aelita sighed. She was lucky to have such great friends. She was luckier to have a friend like Jeremy. Did she really need to know more about her past?

 _No, don't think like that,_ Aelita shook herself. _This isn't just about you. If there's anything in those diaries that can help us defeat Xana then there's no question._

So with that settled, Aelita pushed herself out of bed and headed to the cafeteria for a quick bite to eat. And after that…after that she would head to the factory. She'd finally learn who she was. And at that moment, there was no thought more exhilarating than that. And no thought more terrifying.

 **Post Story Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the story. As I said, reviews of any kind are welcome, and I hope you'll stick around for the next chapter.**

 **As a possibly important side note, I have recently become aware of a project called Code Lyoko Rebirth, a project set on creating a new season of Lyoko. I know what you're thinking, but this one may be different. From what I have heard, this project has actually acquired the license to Code Lyoko (which had apparently been let go of by the production company) and are now attempting to produce at least one new season and get Cartoon Network (so I have heard) to re-air Code Lyoko (as they have the license). Now, since this is the Internet, I take everything with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, I think this may be worth checking out, even if just to fact-check. Make of it what you will. However, if this is true, then this project is actively trying to produce a new season of Code Lyoko at production level qualities (I have actually come across some recruitment offers they have given to certain users on DeviantArt who have shown an exceptional ability at reproducing Code Lyoko's original art style). Like I said, make of it what you will. And naturally, if I learn anything new and solid about this project, I will let you all know. At the end of the story of course. No need for a wall of bold text at the beginning.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. A Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year!**


	2. Memories Part 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, etc...**

 **Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews and views! Hopefully this will be the only chapter that has to follow an episode through almost by script, but with that said, I hope you enjoy.**

Aelita listened silently as Odd debated with himself who he could ask out to the dance. Ulrich and Yumi listened as well, sharing amused looks. They were taking the lift down to the computer lab. Jeremy had said he'd made progress with Franz Hopper's diary and wanted to share it with them. Aelita was nearly eaten up by curiosity wondering what it was.

She was also wondering how long it had taken Jeremy to go through Franz Hopper's diaries. From what she had seen of them, they were quite extensive. Aelita suppressed a sigh. _He probably stayed up all night reading them_ , she thought to herself. Getting Jeremy to have even half a good night's sleep was a full time job.

The lift jolted to a halt, and the massive locked door hissed open as Yumi tapped in the combination. As expected, Jeremy was seated in front of the supercomputer.

"Hey, Einstein. We heard you had something to tell us!" Odd chimed as they entered the room.

Jeremy looked up from the monitor, swiveling around to face his friends. Aelita noticed that he wore a rather pensive expression – and that his eyes were bleary, no doubt from lack of sleep. Nevertheless, he seemed as awake as always. Somehow.

"Do I ever! I spent the whole night reading Franz Hopper's diary," Jeremy informed them, confirming Aelita's fears. She wondered, not for the first time, if he had stayed up so often before they had met. Somehow she felt he hadn't, and that she was the main cause of it. Either way, it couldn't be good for his health.

"Listen to this!" Jeremy interrupted her thoughts, swiveling back around, fingers flying across the keyboard. Aelita hesitated for a moment before crowding around Jeremy with the others.

An image appeared of the man she had seen in her dream. A man they now knew to be Franz Hopper. He seemed relaxed enough, but there was a somber, almost mournful, air about him as he set up his camera. When he had finally done so, he spoke.

"9 June 1994. Day 67," he began, clearing his throat. "Project Carthage was a military program used to block enemy communications. Was, that i-"

"Wait, it's further down," Jeremy interjected, fast forwarding through the video logs. When he finally paused, Franz Hopper appeared once more. The man seemed weary, almost exhausted. He sighed.

"…so I built the Supercomputer, created Lyoko at a terrible price – one that I hope I shall be able to make good on. And lastly of all, I created XANA to destroy Carthage. Only then-"

This apparently wasn't what Jeremy had wanted them to see, and he fast forwarded once more.

"9 June 1994. Day 639," Franz Hopper's voice came again, a cup of coffee held wearily in his hand. He didn't seem too inclined to drink it. Noting the day number, Aelita imagined he had been drinking the same cup of coffee for quite a while.

"It's still further," Jeremy insisted, skipping ahead once more.

"9 June 1994. Day 1265," Franz Hopper began again. His voice was taut with paranoia, and his beard was unkempt and ragged. "Someone's watching me," he said. Aelita and the others shared worried glances. Who could have been watching him? For reasons unknown to her, images of wolves came to Aelita's mind. Thankfully, the sound of Franz Hopper's voice drew her away from them, though not to deliver any good news. "Someone wants to get rid of me!"

The screen blurred again as Jeremy fast-forwarded. He stopped as Franz Hopper was haphazardly aligning his camera, ending up focusing it too close on his face.

"I wanted to destroy the Supercomputer," he said, adjusting the camera again, this time getting the angle right. "Take back all that I had done. Destroy all evidence of my activities. That's when I discovered one of its fascinating properties: returning to the past," Franz Hopper smiled feverishly as he continued. "It gave me all the time I could possibly need to perfect my great project – make it the way it should have been. The only thing that would allow me to escape my enemies and save my daughter."

At the mention of a daughter, Aelita caught her breath. She would have hung on to Hopper's next words with a nervous anticipation if Jeremy hadn't sped forward again. Aelita wanted to make Jeremy rewind, but she held back. There would be time for that later. Fortunately, as Franz Hopper began to speak again, the entry seemed to be the right one.

"9 June 1994. Day 2546," Franz Hopper reported, sounding almost disappointed and immeasurable tired.

"This is it!" Jeremy exclaimed, watching the screen closely. Aelita and the others unconsciously leaned in more.

"I was unable to repair what I had done. The scanners and virtualization programs are ready, though. So…in a few hours, I will join Aelita on Lyoko," he said, seeming to draw some strength into his voice at the thought of his daughter. The gang was speechless, Aelita most of all, as Franz Hopper continued. "Just like I will, Aelita possesses the Keys of Lyoko. Together, we will be the absolute masters!" Franz Hopper leaned closer to the screen, hand reaching for the camera. With a note of finality, he added. "We will live together…forever."

The video suddenly froze as Franz Hopper pressed a button on the camera. A moment later, the window closed and the gang was left to stare, shocked, at the blank screen.

"The Keys of Lyoko," Jeremy announced suddenly, swiveling to face his friends, worry evident on his face. "That's what Xana wants to steal from Aelita's memories!"

"Well, what could Xana do with them?" Ulrich asked as Aelita stared at the screen. Jeremy didn't need to answer, she already knew.

"Escape from the supercomputer," she announced, sighing. "And take over the world."

The lab fell silent as everyone processed the information, and it was only then that Aelita turned to face her friends. They each had different expressions. Jeremy looked the most alarmed, Odd seemed grimly determined, while Ulrich and Yumi shared concerned looks. They were all worried about this new information. All except for Aelita. She was beyond worried. She couldn't begin to explain what she felt. It felt like her world was falling apart again, just like when she'd found out Xana had bound her to the supercomputer with a virus. Or maybe it had been falling apart ever since then and only now was it truly collapsing. Either way, she knew one thing for sure.

This was all her fault.

Before anyone else could speak, Aelita spun on her heels and marched out of the lab, ignoring the surprised looks given to her by her friends.

* * *

A few hours later, Aelita found herself standing before the master switch of the supercomputer. She stared at it for a long while before finally gathering up her strength. She had been thinking about this ever since seeing Franz Hopper's diaries. A part of her didn't want to do it, but she knew she had to. The others wouldn't understand, and that same part felt guilty for making all they'd done for her be in vain. But it was time to except the truth.

She wasn't worth risking her friends' lives. She wasn't worth risking the fate of the world. Maybe she had been once, but now she wasn't. Her father had seen to that. At least when she'd thought she was an AI, she could pretend she was worth something. But now? Now, she was no one. And no one was worth risking the world for.

And so, with a final deep breath, savoring the fleeting feeling of air filling her lungs, Aelita opened the control panel, grasped the switch firmly in her right hand, and pulled it down.

The quiet hum that had filled the room shuddered and died, the light from the supercomputer dimming. Aelita had one last victorious sight of the supercomputer before her eyes, too, darkened, from within rather than without. With a hard thud, the girl fell to the cold, metal floor, silent and unmoving.

The next thing she knew she was slowing blinking her eyes, looking up at Jeremy's worried face.

 _No…_ , she thought weakly in despair.

* * *

Jeremy walked briskly across the bridge that led to the factory. If his head hadn't been so filled with questions, he might have been worried. But as it were, there were simply too many things filling his head to elicit anything but confusion. The two main questions were: Why wasn't the supercomputer responding? and where was Aelita? Those alone were enough for concern, but they weren't the only mysteries that bugged him.

He hadn't told the others, mostly because he knew they wouldn't understand or wouldn't be able to help answer his questions, not even Aelita. It concerned Franz Hopper's diaries. Unlike the others, he'd watched them from start to finish. It's what made him realize that Xana had to have _taken_ something away from Aelita rather than given.

But there was something else nagging at him. Franz Hopper had made mention of something similar. It had been part of what sparked Jeremy's own idea, and yet Hopper had made mention of it _before_ any mention of Xana. Something didn't add up.

Of course, Jeremy reminded himself, as brilliant as Franz Hopper was, he clearly had his limits. The man's obvious paranoia was just the tip of the virtual ice berg, so to speak. The longer the logs had gone on the more the great scientist had seemed, well, almost delirious. Quite often he even got confused about the whereabouts of his own daughter. Add the fact that he constantly, almost obsessively, rambled on and on about "making it up to her" and "fixing it", and, well, you got someone who'd gone through one too many return trips to the past.

To be honest, this apparent delirium bothered Jeremy, and he honestly wondered if Aelita was not at least a little right in calling her father a crazy second-rate magician.

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair, chasing away the thoughts, regardless of everything, Franz Hopper was still a brilliant man. The boy sighed as he entered the lab and started checking the supercomputer. Out of habit he began to run the start up.

Or tried to at least.

The screen flashed blankly before turning off almost immediately.

"This isn't right!" Jeremy exclaimed, his mind briefly focused enough to worry.

He headed down to the chamber that housed the supercomputer. As the doors opened, Jeremy froze for a moment, shocked at the sight before him. The supercomputer was deactivated…and Aelita lay sprawled across the floor.

With a cry of alarm, Jeremy rushed to turn the supercomputer back on before cradling Aelita gently in his arms.

"Aelita, answer me!" He cried desperately.

She didn't move, not even an eyelash fluttered.

"Come on, wake up!" He tried again, his voice rising in fright.

It was then that Aelita took in a breath and moaned before opening her eyes, slowly blinking at the light, unseeing for a while as if confused.

"You're insane," Jeremy whispered, clutching her closer. "Why did you do that?"

He knew that the only explanation for what had happened was that Aelita herself had deactivated the supercomputer.

Aelita shifted a bit in his arms, her gaze still on the wall behind Jeremy.

"To save the world," Aelita said, her eyes focusing on Jeremy. "To save you all!"

Jeremy had to fight back a sob as he clasped his friend tighter.

"We'll save it together," he insisted. "And then you'll have your whole life before you! A brand new life!"

Aelita stayed quiet. She simply closed her eyes.

* * *

The light that had filled her vision faded, and Aelita was given full view of the antechamber of Sector 5 as the transporter deposited the virtual elf and her friends. After the stunt she'd pulled, Jeremy had been more determined than ever to get her fragment back. Fortunately, none of the others were going to the dance, though Aelita suspected that in Odd's case it wasn't from lack of trying.

Her reservations about returning to Lyoko had begun to fade thanks to Jeremy's enthusiasm. The fact that the journey to Sector 5 had been a smooth one, unmarred by monsters, had only served to ease the pinkette's nervousness. Though Yumi had expressed concern at the lack of monsters, Aelita dared to hope that luck was on their side.

"Oh!" Odd exclaimed suddenly as the chamber spun slower and slower.

"What's wrong with you?" Ulrich asked, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Odd. "You feel like throwing up as usual?"

"No, I don't," Odd replied. "That's what I don't understand."

Aelita smiled softly. Things did seem to be looking up.

"Everybody ready?" Jeremy asked from above. "I'm going to enter the coordinates of the room where Aelita's fragment is."

Aelita tensed up as a door began to appear on her right, the anticipation was enough to give her a nervous break. Well, almost enough.

"Get ready," Aelita told her friends. "The wall's about to open up."

As soon as the opening impacted the ground, the four Lyoko Warriors were off, Yumi in the lead with Odd taking up the rear. As soon as they exited the antechamber, they were confronted by the outer walls. They had only to wait, however, for the walls to slide apart layer by layer.

"You have three minutes to find the key and stop the countdown," Jeremy informed them as they entered the room beyond.

Pausing, they took in the sight of the room. It felt as if they were looking down on a city from high above, blue pillars springing out of the wall like it was the ground and the columns were skyscrapers.

"I see it!" Yumi pointed up to a point high on the wall. The others craned their necks to see the switch.

"Out of reach," Odd shook his head. "As usual."

The walls on either side of the room whirred as three alcoves opened up on both sides. Out from their depths emerged a creeper each.

"Look out!" Odd cried, the first to notice the new arrivals.

With low, dull roars the creepers launched a volley of laser bolts at the warriors. Aelita flinched out of habit, but Ulrich intercepted the first wave. Yumi blocked the second while Odd returned fire, leaping forward to get a better shot until two of the creepers on his side were down and he stood right before the last. He gave it a playful wave.

"Hey, creepers!" Odd grinned as the creeper growled at him. "Still as ugly as ever, huh?"

As if insulted, the creeper fired a shot at Odd, but the hybrid was to quick and leapt away, devirtualizing the creeper as the monster tried to pursue him.

"Only one minute to go!" Jeremy exclaimed, urgency creeping into his voice.

Aelita looked up to see Yumi leaping and flipping, climbing upwards towards the switch as Odd directed his attention to the remaining creepers, luring the creepers from their alcoves. Aelita watched in admiration as Odd leapt backwards, clapping Ulrich's hand in triumph before the samurai leapt up onto and off of a nearby pillar, flying in front of the creepers, slicing them all in half.

"Go for it, Yumi," Aelita heard Ulrich mummer as he landed, directing his attention to the geisha now that his was no longer occupied. Odd and Aelita joined him in watching the acrobatic spectacle of Yumi scaling the pillared wall.

The spectacle was cut short for the spectators, however, as more creepers emerged from the walls, demanding Odd and Ulrich's attention once more. Aelita occasionally snuck a glance upwards, though. The last of these glances made Aelita gasp, for a creeper had appeared on top the switch and was now taking pot shots at Yumi. The geisha was stuck on a long, thin crossbeam. With no way to move to the side, she decided to dodge forward, launching into a series of saltos that landed her right in front of the switch. Pressing her feet against the symbol, Yumi quickly extended her legs and grabbed the creeper's head between them, dragging the monster off its post and flinging it to the ground far below.

Everyone heard Jeremy's sigh of relief as the room began to reconfigure.

"Nice job," Ulrich commented before the floor spiraled downwards to reveal a staircase to a lower level. Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd stared down into the chasm. They could just barely make out the bottom.

"Want to see how low you can go, huh guys?" Odd asked, waving a paw towards the stairs.

Aelita didn't hear Jeremy's reply, too focused was she on the staircase. She felt almost…drawn to it. Like something wanted her to go down there. Whatever the feeling was, it dispelled her fears of returning to Lyoko. Once Yumi joined them, the four set off down the stairs.

Ulrich was the first to reach the bottom, so he was the first to see what lay at the end of the room.

"Jeremy! There's something shiny over there!" Ulrich called out, drawing everyone's attention over the bridge that stretched across the room to a single raised platform. Floating above it was a luminous sphere, just large enough so one could barely wrap their arms about it. Aelita squinted her eyes to get a closer look, but she needn't have, for Jeremy soon answered her unspoken question.

"That's it!" He exclaimed. "That's Aelita's missing fragment!"

Aelita was unable to hold herself back anymore. She ran forward, not caring if the others followed or not. They did, of course, but their race soon came to a stop as platforms emerged from the walls on both sides of the chasm that surrounded the bridge, each carrying a creeper. Yumi was the first to notice them this time.

"Look out!" She shouted, before grunting as an energy bolt hit her from behind. She had only noticed the creepers on her right, and Aelita had been too slow to warn her of the danger behind her.

In an unspoken agreement, Odd and Yumi covered for Ulrich and Aelita as the latter two continued onward, even as more creepers were sent to replace the ones destroyed. Yumi and Odd lay halfway across the bridge, so Ulrich stopped at the next half-point to give Aelita further cover.

Aelita continued her desperate race, glancing over her shoulder as Ulrich joined his friends to form a tight defensive circle.

 _This is exactly why I didn't want to return to Lyoko!_ Aelita thought desperately. She had put her friends in danger once again.

Suddenly, the floor disappeared from in front of Aelita. The pinkette gasped. None of them had noticed the gap, too wide to leap across, that lay in between the entrance and her fragment. Desperately, Aelita glanced between the chasm and her friends. Though they had just destroyed the creepers that had previously surrounded them, the platforms simply delivered more. Looking back at the gap, Aelita contemplated using her creativity. But what cost would that come at?

Aelita was suddenly aware of Ulrich and Yumi's presence behind her. She turned around just in time to see Odd devirtualized by a creeper. Though she knew Odd would be alright, Aelita couldn't bear to watch as Odd's virtual form disintegrated. She turned to Yumi as both she and Ulrich grabbed Aelita's hands, one on each side. Realizing their plan, Aelita ran forward with them, leaping in tandem. Both Ulrich and Yumi flung her forward, just far enough to land on the other side.

Whirling around, Aelita crouched down to the edge, reaching for Ulrich's hand. Her two friends had fallen short. But it was too late for Yumi, however, as the geisha was devirtualized by another volley from the creepers. Aelita helped Ulrich up, instinctively ducking as the samurai block another wave of laser bolts with his katana.

"Jeremy! Yumi and Odd are down!" Ulrich reported urgently.

"I know!" Jeremy replied with equal urgency. "Get Aelita's fragment!"

A rumble came from the far side of the room, growing louder and louder. Before Aelita and Ulrich's startled eyes, the bridge began to collapse.

"The whole room is falling apart!" Jeremy cried, jolting Aelita and Ulrich into action. "Run for it!"

"Oh, no!" Ulrich cried as their half of the bridge began to collapse as well.

As the room continued to collapse not even Xana's creatures were spared as they were sent plummeting into the chasm below. Ulrich was able to keep pace with the rapid collapse of the bridge, but soon Aelita began falling behind. Glancing back, Ulrich saw that Aelita's portion of the bridge was about to fall with her on it. Aelita reached out desperately for Ulrich's hand too late. The two remaining warriors plummeted off the bridge. Aelita knew that the impact would be enough to devirtualize them. And in her case, that would be lethal.

 _Perhaps it's for the best,_ Aelita thought grimly. _Perhaps-_

Her fall was cut unexpectedly short. Glancing down in surprise, Aelita saw, with a start, that she had landed on a manta. A glowing white manta.

"Jeremy, it's getting worse!" Ulrich called. Aelita glanced over at the samurai. He too had landed on a manta, and though he wasn't about to devirtualize the thing that kept him from falling, he didn't have to be comfortable with it.

Aelita could hardly believe her eyes. The only time something like this had happened was when they had allied with Xana against the Marabounta. But why would Xana help them when he was trying to stop her? Her confusion was only added to by Jeremy.

"Oh, no," Jeremy countered Ulrich, sounding unusually pleased. "It's getting better."

In a way it made sense to Aelita, but at the same time it sounded utterly insane.

"You're crazy!" Ulrich echoed Aelita' thoughts, sharing a puzzled look with her. "What's going on!?"

"It's Franz Hopper who's controlling the mantas," Jeremy explained. Aelita gasped softly. Her father? He was helping her? Saving her? Even after she had tried to deactivate the supercomputer with him in it?

Ulrich's manta set him down at the bottom of the stairs leading up to her fragment, while Aelita's continued upward. Realizing its intent, Aelita stood up carefully so as to step onto the platform holding her fragment. The virtual elf couldn't help but smile as she stepped off the manta. At last, their goal was so close!

Getting a closer look at the fragment, Aelita gasped at the sight of a small, white hologram of herself slowly rotating in the center. Taking it in both hands, Aelita gazed at it in wonder. She was so close to putting an end to all of this.

 _Tsssst!_ The fragment shattered like glass. Aelita stumbled backwards with cry. A rumble from above drew her gaze upwards and her eyes widened at the sight of the entire ceiling collapsing. Ulrich let out a shocked cry from behind her.

"It's a trap!" Jeremy cried, confirming Aelita' sinking feeling. Yumi had been right. It'd been too easy. Aelita doubted if the geisha would feel like saying 'I told you so', though.

Aelita turned to see Ulrich dodging out of the way of the blocks. His manta attempted to sidle up to him, but a wayward block spelled an end to the helpful beast. Ulrich screamed as a second block crushed him as well. Panic began to take hold in Aelita. She was all alone.

She turned to step onto her manta. The creature was gone, however. Aelita looked around frantically. Had it been struck by the falling ceiling as well?

"Help me!" She cried desperately. Whether she was calling to Jeremy or her father or just to her missing manta, Aelita was too frightened to tell.

"Aelita, behind you!" Jeremy cried. Aelita spun around, crying at the sight of the Scyphozoa.

She had no escape as the monstrous creature lunge forward with its tentacles, wrapping them around her body, paralysis gripping her.

Time seemed to slow as she felt her mind slipping away. The world became a blur, and she could only think one thing over and over again.

 _I'm sorry_.

This time the darkness which had threatened to engulf her time and time again became complete. She stopped feeling, thinking. With a final gasp, Aelita numbly felt her body slam against the floor. Her hands could do little more than shiver, and soon enough she could not even keep her eyes open. But she had stopped seeing long before that.

 **Post Story Author's Note: As always, I welcome all reviews, no matter their calibre. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you'll stick around for the next: Splitting Image Part 1.**


	3. Splitting Image Part 1

**Disclaimer: Own anything, I do not...**

 **Author's Note: As always, the reviews are much appreciated. In truth, this chapter could have been posted a couple days ago, but I hadn't realized then that this was all the chapter needed. Oh, well, at least you won't have to read through another modified transcript of an episode. Hope you enjoy.**

Carthage, the fifth sector of Lyoko, darkened. No longer sustained by Xana, Lyoko, too, began to die. The mists that surrounded each tower in every sector changed from blue to red as the Keys of Lyoko found themselves in the hands of a new master.

Deep within Carthage lay the body of Aelita, lying where it had fallen after Xana had stolen the Keys of Lyoko from her. It would seem to have been the end of her story had not a brilliant sphere of white light engulfed her.

It was time to remember.

The girl's eyes shot open as memories flooded into her mind, both joyful and painful. The aura of light which surrounded her grew and grew until it engulfed all of Carthage, bringing Sector 5, and Lyoko, back from death.

The mists surrounding the towers changed once more, this time from red to white. The keys Xana had stolen were not the only ones that had been made.

It's task complete, the light faded, leaving the virtual elf lying on her back, staring up at the remains of the ceiling. Her eyes wandered over the room and then over her body, unaccustomed to the sight. She tried to move, but was unsuccessful at first, unused to the effort required.

Her body began to pixelate. She was being materialized. The girl readied herself for the flood of sensations that she knew was coming.

White light, brighter than anything she could conceive, flooded her eyes. She instinctively closed them. Air whirled and shrieked around her, but, more than that, she felt the flow over her skin, and she felt the weight of her own body on her legs. The light dimmed, but she did not open her eyes.

The weight became too much and she reached out for support. Her hand grabbed on to cold metal, attempting to steady herself. Her arms, however, seemed as equally unable to support her as her legs, and with a gasp the girl collapse onto the floor. Vaguely, she heard voices. They sounded…concerned.

She felt arms around her. Finally opening her eyes, the girl saw a face. She felt she recognized it, and soon enough she found the memory.

"Jeremy," she muttered before collapsing into his arms. For now, she would be safe enough there.

* * *

Jeremy reclined in his chair, while Ulrich leaned against the table opposite him. They were in Jeremy's dorm room. Aelita sat in the corner of the room on Jeremy's bed, while Yumi sat next to her and Odd lay at the end of the structure, propped up by his arms.

Kiwi lay in Aelita's lap. The girl ran her hand dispassionately over the dog's back. He grumbled to himself, wondering why Aelita wasn't petting him like she normally did. He'd wondered if he'd done something to upset the pink-haired human.

"Right," Odd broke the silence, lacking his usual enthusiasm. "Would someone please say something funny before I have a heart attack."

Aelita remained quiet, seeming deep in contemplation. Odd looked around desperately.

"No?" He said, collapsing onto the bed. "Fine, excuse me while I have my heart attack."

Aelita glanced over at him, then, seeming to find nothing wrong with him, returned to her contemplations.

"All those memories of your life on Earth," Jeremy began hesitantly. Aelita looked over to the boy, realizing he was addressing her. "That was the fragment Xana took from you to bind you to him. And Franz Hopper managed to get them back to you!"

Aelita stared at him for a moment.

"Yes," she nodded eventually. "Yes…he did."

"Now you're free, Aelita," Ulrich added. Fortunately, Aelita did not need to turn her head too far to look at him. "But unfortunately, so is Xana."

"Shutting the supercomputer down isn't going to work anymore," Yumi lamented. "What are we going to do."

Aelita began to open her mouth as if to speak, but Jeremy spoke first. A flash of irritation crossed Aelita's face before it was once again replaced by an expressionless mask.

"We'll fight," Jeremy was saying. He stood up and walked over to his friends. "Xana may have become more powerful but I don't think he's invincible."

Aelita watched Jeremy closely.

"If he attacks, we'll counterattack," Jeremy continued his speech, fists clenched at his side, determination evident. "We'll find a way to get rid of Xana for good."

Aelita narrowed her eyes slightly but held her silence. Her mask reapplied itself as Yumi spoke to her.

"And we'll do everything we can to find your dad, Aelita," the tall girl said.

The others looked at Aelita, seeming to watch her reaction. Slowly, Aelita pushed Kiwi off the blanket draped over her lap. Kiwi didn't mind. He wasn't getting all that much petting anyways. The dog wandered over to a corner and curled up.

Aelita seemed to hesitate for a moment before speaking.

"You're right," she said slowly, as if feeling the words before they left her mouth. "The fight must go on. After all," Aelita paused, perhaps searching her memory for the right words. At last, she decided on them, "fighting Xana is my job."

"No Aelita," Jeremy's words brought Aelita's gaze up to him. Ulrich had walked over to join them. His hands clasped Jeremy's and Odd's, while Yumi held Jeremy's other hand, she and Odd offering one each to Aelita. "It's _our_ job," Jeremy finished, giving her a smile.

Aelita hesitated for a moment, then took their hands.

She didn't return their smiles.

* * *

Jeremy pushed through the cafeteria doors, eyes already roving over the tables. Finding the object of his pursuit, Jeremy made his way over to where Aelita was quietly eating her breakfast alone. The movement of hand to mouth as she spooned up her cereal was mechanical and her eyes were far away. It wasn't until Jeremy cleared his throat that she noticed him.

"Jeremy," she said, without any particular emphasis. "Good morning."

"Uh, hey, Aelita," Jeremy felt warmer, already a bit nervous around her. "Um, I was wondering if, y'know, after breakfast, you'd like to head to the factory? We can work on the Xana tracking program together."

Jeremy held his breath as Aelita gazed at him emotionlessly. Seeming to be almost in contemplation for a moment, Aelita slowly smiled. Jeremy deflated. As poor as his social skills were, he knew a forced smile when he saw one.

"I'm not sure that's necessary, Jeremy," Aelita answered evenly, confirming the boy's suspicions. "You're doing just fine on your own. Besides, I have my own projects to work on. It would be best if our focus was…undivided"

 _You mean_ _if_ my _focus was undivided_ , Jeremy thought bitterly, repressing a sigh. Outwardly, he managed to smile back, though it probably looked as weak and forced as Aelita's.

"Of course, right," Jeremy said, not feeling his own words. "I-I guess I'll get on that then."

Aelita nodded and returned to her meal, eyes distant once more. Jeremy stood there for a moment, breath pent up, before releasing a soft, almost inaudible sigh before turning away and leaving the cafeteria as he had come. The whole way his mind was plagued by thoughts of Aelita.

"Hey, Jeremy," a voice broke through his thoughts. Jeremy looked up to see Yumi walking towards him. "How are you?"

 _Terrible, honestly_ , Jeremy thought to himself. Aloud he said, "I'm fine."

Yumi raised an eyebrow. She wasn't fooled for a moment.

"Define 'fine'," Yumi said, falling in step next to Jeremy as the boy instinctively headed for the woods.

Jeremy stuffed his hands in his pockets before sighing, his shoulders slumping unconsciously.

"Not good," Jeremy offered pathetically. "It's Aelita."

"What about Aelita?" Yumi asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice. "Is she alright?"

"No, she's fine. I think," Jeremy shook his head. "It's been a week Yumi!"

"Ah, I see what's this is about now," Yumi's eyes glittered with understanding. "She still not talking to you?"

Jeremy stopped walking and leaned against a tree, suddenly feeling the need to stay still. He looked across to Yumi, standing arms folded in front of him.

"It's not that she won't talk to me," Jeremy sighed. "She just feels so…distant." Jeremy hung his head in defeat. "Did I upset her somehow?"

"Have you asked her?" Yumi proposed, leaning up next to Jeremy against the tree trunk. "Maybe if she told you what was wrong you could fix things, or make it up to her."

"That's the thing!" Jeremy threw his hands up in exasperation. "She says everything's fine! She forces a smile onto her face and says she's not upset in the slightest! And do you know what the worst thing is?"

"What?" Yumi gave her friend a wary sideways look. She had come here to visit her friends over the holiday, not listen to Jeremy rant. But she sensed her friend needed to let this out of his system and so humored him. Yumi's eyes followed Jeremy as he pushed away from the tree with a grunt and began pacing in a circle.

"The worst thing is," Jeremy continued. "Is that it feels like she's telling the _truth_. Like she's not upset. I mean, you've seen her upset before, right, Yumi?" Yumi nodded. "She always lets me know what the problem. Heck, it's usually because she doesn't agree with me about something. But this?" Jeremy raised a hand in the air in supplication before letting it fall back to his side. "It's like we're strangers, and I'm that one annoying guy who keeps trying to strike up a conversation." Jeremy returned to the tree, leaning against it and sliding down until he sat on the grass, head in his hands. "I just don't know what to do."

Yumi remained quiet, unsure of what to say. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't concerned about Aelita's recent behavior. She'd seen Aelita angry before, at Jeremy even, and he was right, it was nothing like this.

"Do you think she blames me for what happened in Sector 5? For Xana and her keys?" Jeremy asked suddenly, even if quietly. Realizing she had drifted off into her own thoughts, Yumi sat down next to her friend, resting an arm over his shoulders.

"I'm sure she doesn't," Yumi said soothingly. It was sometimes easy to forget that Jeremy took the safety of his friends so seriously. And personally. Especially Aelita. "No one does. Jeremy, you did what you had to. What you thought was right. And we all agreed." Jeremy looked unconvinced. "Jeremy, what happened there wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known it was a trap."

"But I should have," Jeremy spat bitterly. "I should have realized it was too easy. It was my fault that you guys were down there. If I hadn't have pushed Aelita so hard to get her memories, then…" Jeremy closed his eyes, mentally kicking himself.

Yumi's eyes suddenly flashed with anger and she withdrew her arm.

"Enough," she snapped, yanking Jeremy out of his pity party. "You want to play the blame game? Fine. I thought it was too easy. I said as much. But I didn't do anything about it."

"But you-" Jeremy began to speak, but Yumi cut him off once more.

"But I'm what?" She said. "Not the leader? Not in charge of everyone's safety? Not responsible for our lives? Why do you _want_ this to be your fault?" Yumi asked. When Jeremy didn't answer, Yumi continued, her voice hard and cold. "Fine, you want to take the blame – how about this." Jeremy looked over to her, half in dread, half in curiosity. "If you'd never found the supercomputer and turned it on, we'd never be in this mess! Xana would have never awoken. He'd have never started attacking us and everyone we care about, and everyone and the whole world would be safer because of it!"

Jeremy slumped against tree, eyes closed. If Yumi didn't know him better, she would have thought he was on the brink of tears. She continued speaking, however, and as she did so, her eyes softened and her voice lost its edge.

"And do you know what else wouldn't have happened?" Yumi asked softly. Jeremy hesitated before looking back up, clearly expecting the worst. "You'd have never met Aelita. None of us would. She'd still be trapped there. Asleep. Without any knowledge of who she was and without anyone who cared for her." Jeremy pursed his lips. Yumi could tell he wanted to say she was wrong. That it was still his fault. But he didn't. Yumi smiled and placed a hand on his shoulders. "And what's more, we wouldn't be friends. None of us. Not all of us together, at least." Yumi took a deep breath. "So what if you've made mistakes? We all have. But we're not alone. We don't blame you and neither does Aelita."

Yumi figured that was enough for now and decided to let Jeremy process it. After a while, her friend finally sighed.

"I guess I should stop feeling sorry for myself, huh?" He said, turning to give Yumi a thin, wry smile. Yumi smiled back.

"Yep," Yumi said, punching him lightly on the shoulders. "And about time."

Jeremy gave a chuckle as Yumi helped him to his feet. Taking a deep breath, Jeremy ran his hands through his hair.

"Well, I guess I better get to work," Jeremy said ruefully. "Xana doesn't rest, so neither will I."

"Not sure that's the best way to go about it," Yumi laughed. "But good luck. And maybe Aelita just needs another girl to talk to."

Jeremy looked up at her hopefully.

"You mean…"

"Yeah, I'll go talk to her," Yumi shrugged. "I was coming here to hang out with you guys anyways, so why not?"

"Jeez, thanks Yumi!" Jeremy grinned. "I owe you one!"

"I'll be sure to remember you said that," Yumi smirked. With a wave, Jeremy headed back into a forest and Yumi turned back to Kadic. It was time she and Aelita had some girl talk.

* * *

Yumi knocked on the door to Aelita's dorm. By the time she had reached the cafeteria, Aelita had been long gone. Given that the pinkette only spent her time in three places these days, and given what she'd heard from Jeremy, Yumi safety bet that this was where Aelita was.

"Yes?" Sure enough, a voice that was almost curious called from within the room.

"Aelita, it's me, Yumi. Open up?" Yumi called back.

A vague rustling sounded from behind the door and Yumi just barely heard the sound of a laptop closing. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Aelita.

"What is it, Yumi?" Aelita asked, again with curiosity barely there. "Is there something the matter?"

"Does something have to be the matter for me to visit a friend?" Yumi asked rhetorically.

To her surprise, Aelita seemed to actually start considering the question. Hoping to nip that conversation in the bud, Yumi got to the point.

"I was just wondering what's up with you and Jeremy," the older girl said. Aelita seemed somewhat puzzled.

"What's up?" Aelita echoed. Yumi was unsure if she was asking about phrase or her question. Deciding on the latter now that the pinkette had her memories of Earth back, Yumi pushed forward.

"Yeah, you two have barely talked all week, let alone hung out," Yumi explained. "Did you two get in a fight?"

That certainly was a possibility, though why Jeremy hadn't mentioned an argument was beyond Yumi. Aelita, however, just shook her head.

"No, not at all," Aelita said. "Why? Has he displayed anger towards me."

The question startled Yumi. She stared at Aelita for a moment before shaking her head.

"N-no," she said. "I was just wondering, since, y'know," Yumi trailed off. "I mean, it's just seemed like you've been sort of distant. You two used to work together all the time. I mean, you used to love just being in the same room with him." Yumi chewed on her lip. "I'm your friend, Aelita. I just want to make sure everything is alright."

Yumi watched Aelita carefully. The pinkette, unexpectedly, seemed rather bemused. Finally, however, she seemed to come to a decision.

"Nothing's wrong between us," Aelita started slowly. "I've simply been busy. So has Jeremy. I had thought it best if we worked alone – to avoid any distractions."

"Is that it?" Yumi asked skeptically. Jeremy and Aelita had always worked together well in the past. Again, however, Aelita nodded her head.

"Yes, that's it," the girl said, mulling something over for a moment. "I suppose I'm just worried about what Xana might be planning," Aelita worked her mouth a bit, like she was trying to form a word. "Y'know?"

Aelita watched Yumi closely, as if trying to judge her reaction. At least, that's what it seemed like to Yumi. The older girl shook her head and gave her friend a smile.

"Yeah, I know," Yumi replied, placing a hand on Aelita's shoulder. "Just remember, we're all in this together. Me, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich – we all got your back. Don't let Xana get you worried."

"I won't," Aelita smiled. She walked over to her bed and picked up her laptop. Turning to Yumi, she added, "I think I will go to the lab to…work with Jeremy."

"That's more like it," Yumi said, laughter in her voice. "I was almost starting to get worried. You haven't really been yourself lately."

Aelita tensed up for a moment. Then she returned Yumi's smile.

"No," she said. "I suppose I haven't."

 **Post Story Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Hopefully, you're satisfied. Though this is the shortest chapter so far, I didn't really feel it needed more. But hey, if you didn't like it, you know what you can do? You can review it (not-so-subtle-brainwashing). Same goes for those of you who liked it. All reviews are welcome. And though you can probably guess, here's the title for next chapter: Splitting Image Part 2**


	4. Splitting Image Part 2

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, nothing belongs to me.**

 **Author's Note: And I'm back! Finally. I did not intend to be gone that long. Gotta love spring break. Anyways, thanks for the reviews! They mean a lot and are a powerful motivator; I'm glad that my writing of Aelita came across well, hopefully I can keep it up. But enough of that, you (presumably) came here for this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

Yumi was heading up the dormitory stairs when she nearly ran into Jeremy coming from the opposite direction. The blond must have been deep in thought for he didn't even notice his friend as he half-stumbled down the staircase.

"Whoa, Jeremy!" Yumi called, hand of the rail as she twisted out of the way.

"Huh?" Jeremy jerked to a stop, turning around. "Oh, hey Yumi," Jeremy smiled, adjusting his glasses. "Sorry, I guess I didn't see you there."

"You don't say," Yumi said. "You're looking chipper today."

Jeremy nodded.

"I am," he said, words speeding up in excitement. "Last night, Aelita and I finally managed to finish the Xana tracking program!"

Yumi raised an eyebrow at that.

"Really? I thought you'd said that program wouldn't be ready for at least a few more days."

"Well, that's what I thought," Jeremy shrugged. "But Aelita was a big help. I couldn't have done it without her!"

Yumi let a smile tug at the corner of her lips. It looked like Aelita and Jeremy had gotten over whatever it was that had been going on between them.

"Glad to hear it," the older girl said. "I bet it was pretty great working with Aelita again."

"Yeah," Jeremy sighed dreamily. "She was - I mean, it was. Great working with her, that is. Again."

Yumi suppressed a laugh as Jeremy turned a dark shade of red. What a dork. No wonder Odd liked to make him and Aelita blush all the time. It was just too easy.

Jeremy's eyes fixed on the case tucked under Yumi's left arm.

"What's that?" He asked.

Yumi glanced down.

"Oh, this?" She said. "Just an old board game. Popular though. I was going to see if one of you two wanted to take a crack at it."

"Hiroki getting on your nerves?" Jeremy guessed with a smile. Yumi rolled her eyes.

"Like you would not believe," she said. "So what do you say," Yumi held up the box. "Feel up to a little socializing?"

"Uh, not right now," Jeremy shook his head, serious once more. "We may have finished the tracking program, but I want to use the time before the others get back to check for bugs – and to work on a few of my own projects. Sorry."

"No problem," Yumi laughed. "I figured as much. Well," Yumi exclaimed, tucking the box under her arm once more. "I'll see if Aelita's up for a game or two. See you later?"

"See you later," Jeremy nodded in agreement before the two went their separate ways.

* * *

In her room, Aelita glared at her laptop as an error sign flashed across the screen. She suppressed a nearly involuntary growl before forcing her brain back into focus once more. Getting angry would not accomplish anything.

She was not used to the emotions that now swarmed about her mind. It could not be helped, though. With memories came emotion. Before she had been able to suppress them, ignore them, carry out her job.

Then _she_ had tried to shut down the supercomputer, and Xana escaped, making everything that much more complicated for her.

Aelita sighed and rubbed her forehead, which was beginning to exhibit some pain. Fortunately, she had memories that told her the headaches were merely a side effect of her frustration and lack of sleep. Shaking her head, Aelita forced herself to concentrate on the program before her.

 _Knock-knock-knock,_

A flash of irritation shot through Aelita, but, once again, she put it away back in its proper place. Out of mind.

* * *

Outside Aelita's dorm room, Yumi waited at the door.

"Aelita?" Yumi called out, shifting the board game to her right arm.

"Yumi? Is that you?" Aelita replied, voice muffled behind the door. A moment later the door swung open, revealing the pinkette as calm and collected as last Yumi had seen her. "Is something wrong?"

"Again, does something have to be wrong for me to visit my friend?" Yumi reminded the pinkette, who paused briefly in thought.

"Last time you came, it was concerning my relationship with Jeremy. From how you described it, I would define that as 'something wrong'," Aelita said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, fine," Yumi shrugged. "But this time it's not. I figured it's time you and I hung out a bit." Yumi held up the board game in her hands. "I even brought a game."

Aelita looked at the board game, then at Yumi.

"I'm sorry, Yumi, but I don't think that would be the most…productive use of my time," she said simply and unapologetically.

Yumi rolled her eyes. Looks like Jeremy had started wearing off on Aelita instead of the other way around.

"It's not about being productive, Aelita," Yumi insisted, walking into Aelita's room and closing the door behind her, setting the board game on the floor and opening the box. "It's about _taking a break_. You know, that thing Jeremy never does but really should."

Yumi glanced up at Aelita, who seemed as disinterested as ever. Yumi frowned.

"And it wouldn't hurt to hang out with your friends once and a while," Yumi said, pulling the board game out of the box. "Now sit."

"But I did not say I would play," Aelita frowned, seeming more puzzled than anything else. Nonetheless, a commanding glare from Yumi caused the younger girl to sit.

"Well, doesn't matter now, because you're playing," Yumi said, crossing her legs and sitting down across from Aelita. "Now, do you know what game this is?"

Aelita frowned a bit and glanced down at what appeared to be a wooden board crosshatched with black lines in a thirteen by thirteen grid. After a moment's contemplation, Aelita shook her head.

"No," she said. "I don't. It doesn't appear to be very…complicated."

 _Wow, was that supposed to be an insult, Aelita?_ Yumi thought to herself. _Because if it was, you've got some work to do._

Outwardly, Yumi smiled.

"Well, looks can be deceiving. It's a very ancient game called _Go_ ," Yumi explained. "The goal is to use your stones," here Yumi held out a fist of black stones, piling them in front of Aelita, and depositing a pile of white stones by herself, "to surround vacant areas on the board, forming territories. You can also capture your opponent's stones by surrounding them." Yumi then proceeded to explain the finer points to Aelita, who seemed borderline bored with the whole thing but listened nonetheless. When she had finished, Yumi sat back. "So, you got that?"

"Yes, I believe so," Aelita said. She seemed to mull something over for a moment. "I presume this is a game from…Japan, yes?"

"China, actually," Yumi chuckled. "Though it's nice having someone think the other way around for once."

"I see," Aelita said, clearly not. "As I have the black stones, am I correct in drawing the conclusion that I shall go first?"

"Getting the hang of it already," Yumi smiled as she leaned forward. "But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're a novice."

"Of course not," Aelita said, gazing down at the board, barely feigning interest.

Ignoring this, Yumi watched as Aelita placed down her first stone. The motion was swift but obviously thought out.

 _Well, at least you put_ some _thought into it_ , Yumi noted dryly as she pondered her first move. Trying to ignore Aelita's impatient gaze, Yumi focused on the matter at hand and placed her first piece.

This was going to be a long game.

* * *

"Test Successful."

Jeremy gave a relieved sigh at the sound of the supercomputer's synthesized voice. Glancing up from his notes on Franz Hopper, Jeremy saw that his most recent test of the Xana tracking program had been a complete success. Bringing up the software, Jeremy's hand hovered over the keyboard. After a moment's hesitation, he pressed 'enter'. Immediately the program began scanning the internet, looking for any sign of Xana.

"So far, so good," Jeremy grinned, congratulating himself and Aelita. "You can't hide now Xana."

Knowing there might not be any Xana activity for now, Jeremy went about busying himself with other projects, namely one that he had thought up recently: a mode of transport for traveling through the Internet. With any luck, since he'd completed the tracking program earlier than expected, he could get a head star

Just as he got started, something on one of the side screens caught his eye. With a puzzled noise, Jeremy frowned over at the display. For whatever reason, something seemed off. But no matter how hard he inspected the screen, however, he couldn't quite figure out what. Finally, he gave up.

"Maybe Yumi was right," Jeremy mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Maybe I do need to get some more sleep."

Then it hit him: there was an extra set of logs on the login register.

Jeremy peered closer. Someone else had logged onto the supercomputer. He knew this because, even though he spent most of his time in the lab, he did take breaks for lunch. Well, supper at least. And these login times were during said meals.

"What in the world?" Jeremy muttered, hands flying over the keyboard as he pulled up the activity logs for the mysterious sessions. To his surprise, the logs were empty, devoid of any record of activity save logging in and logging out, despite about an hour's time between the two. "This can't be right."

Resting his head on his hand thoughtfully, Jeremy decided to try another approach. If the supercomputer couldn't tell him _what_ had been done during those sessions, then it could tell him _who_ had done it. Jeremy pulled up the security feeds. Rewinding back to the earliest time recorded, about a week ago, Jeremy watched the screen. What he saw caused him to gasp aloud.

Emerging from one of the lab's access tunnels was Aelita, which would explain why the lift activation logs hadn't drawn his attention. Wordlessly, Jeremy watched as Aelita sat down and logged into the computer. He couldn't see what she was doing but as he fast-forwarded through the recordings, Aelita's time spent in the lab matched perfectly with the time gap in the activity logs.

 _Why would Aelita delete the activity logs?_ Jeremy thought to himself as he skipped ahead to the next time gap. And the next and the next. Every single one was of Aelita. Thinking about it, Jeremy realized that recently he had ever only seen Aelita during breakfast. He'd thought he'd just missed her at the other meals because he had arrived too late, but now...

 _What could she possibly be doing, and why wouldn't she tell me about it?_ Jeremy thought as he looked over the logs again.

Questions poured through Jeremy's mind, but as hard as he tried to find good answers to them, he failed. The only reason Aelita would have deleted the activity logs was if she didn't want whatever it was she had been doing to be known. Anything else and she would have kept them – the logs had proven to be an invaluable resource for them both, as they recorded all actions of the user, a feature Jeremy had installed after the incident with Odd's accidental modification of Aelita's materialization program.

Furthermore, Aelita had – save for the day prior – been practically avoiding the lab. Never mind the fact that Jeremy couldn't have said no if Aelita had asked to use the supercomputer.

No, whatever it was, Aelita didn't want him to know about it.

"But what could Aelita be hiding?" Jeremy mumbled.

As soon as he said the words, equal parts shame, curiosity, and dread came over him. On one hand, it might just be something Aelita didn't want to talk about. She didn't want to bother him while he worked, Jeremy reasoned. Still, a part of him wasn't sure. Aelita had been acting differently the past week. True, she had been a huge help programing the tracking software, pointing out flaws where Jeremy would have missed them and providing incredible insight on how to go about tracking Xana, but she hadn't seemed interested in the project at all, even though it was for fighting Xana. In fact, Jeremy could have sworn that Aelita had been surprised that they'd finished at all.

Then there was that time Aelita had attempted to shut down the supercomputer to stop Xana, nearly killing herself in the process.

Jeremy's dread only grew. Could this be something crazy like that? If so, it would certainly explain her secrecy.

He glanced down at the keyboard, wrestling with his thoughts. Violating Aelita's privacy didn't sit all that well with him, but he had to know.

"Well, here goes nothing," Jeremy gulped, fingers slowly, hesitantly, crawling across the keyboard before gradually moving faster as his resolve grew.

Privacy or no, if there was something going on with Aelita, something so bad that it required the supercomputer, then Jeremy absolutely had to know. He was going to do all he could to keep his friend safe and out of harm's way, whether she wanted him to or not.

* * *

Laying down on the dorm room floor, Yumi watched as Aelita considered her next move.

Well, considered might have been too strong a word. Vaguely contemplate with barely disguised boredom was probably a better description. Yumi suppressed a sigh. She had come to Kadic to spend some time with her friends, especially Aelita. Even though Yumi wasn't what one might call a "girly-girl", preferring to spend more time with boys instead, occasionally it was relieving to take a break from them. Or it would be, if present company was at all interested in being, well, _interested_.

In fact, Yumi was on the verge of swearing that Aelita was acting _dis_ interested on purpose.

Finally, the pinkette came to a decision and placed down a black stone, forming a pair of eyes in her last territory, securing it. Yumi couldn't help but smile a bit. Indifference may work in trying to get rid of your friends, but it wouldn't win you a game.

"I pass," Yumi announced, directing her smile at Aelita. There were no other moves that Yumi, or Aelita for that matter, could reasonably make. Besides, the board was in Yumi's favor.

The pinkette seemed puzzled for a moment before contemplating the board between them.

"I…pass as well," Aelita frowned down at the board. It seemed like she'd expected the game to go on longer. "Which means…," the pinkette trailed off, her frown deepening as her brow furrowed. Yumi smirked in triumph.

"Which means I won," Yumi declared. Leaning over, the older girl couldn't help but tease her friend a bit, a little payback for Aelita's attitude. "Guess _Go_ wasn't as easy as you thought, huh?"

A flash of irritation overtook Aelita for a moment as she glanced up at Yumi, but it quickly subsided into subdued contemplation.

"I…didn't expect to lose," Aelita murmured, almost to herself. Yumi rolled her eyes. Whoever did?

"Well, just because you're Miss Einstein doesn't mean you know everything," Yumi said, a friendly gleam in her eye. "I know a few tricks."

"Miss Einstein…?" Aelita seemed puzzled for a moment, then she shook her head. "Oh, right." She returned to her contemplation of the board game.

 _And I thought Jeremy was moody,_ Yumi thought, deciding it was time to leave. Standing up, the older girl began to pick up the game. "Well, I won't bother you anymore." She said. "I hope you make some progress on…whatever it is you're working on."

"Wait," Aelita grabbed Yumi's hand almost impulsively. Yumi glanced down at the contact in surprise before Aelita quickly removed her hand and continued hesitantly. "Do you think we could… try this… one more time?"

Yumi gave the pinkette a warm smile. Maybe she was getting somewhere after all. Or Aelita just did not like to lose. Either way worked.

"All right, I'm all yours," Yumi said, taking her seat once more and rearranging the board. "White or black?"

Aelita pondered the question for a moment.

"Black," she said at last.

Yumi dealt out the pieces and soon enough the two girls embarked into another round of _Go_ , and Yumi was pleased to note that Aelita was fully engaged this time.

Not that it stopped her from beating Aelita, or at least her ego, to a pulp, for soon enough Yumi had once again defeated the pinkette. Starting over again at Aelita's request, with the pinkette taking white this time, Yumi once more handily won against her friend. Enjoying herself now, Yumi lost track of time as the she and Aelita played game after game, all which Yumi won. A fact which seemed to irritate the pinkette to no end.

"I don't understand," Aelita scowled after her fifth loss. "I _should_ be able to defeat you."

Yumi couldn't help but laugh at her friend's frustration. Who knew Aelita could be so competitive?

"Don't take it too hard, Aelita," Yumi consoled gently. "You're new at this, while I've been playing for years. And you _have_ been improving. Besides," Yumi added, glancing at the board. "I probably shouldn't have started you out with a thirteen-by-thirteen board anyways. It's more traditional to start out with a nine-by-nine."

Aelita shook her head.

"If anything a larger board should have made my winning more probable!" Aelita exclaimed, gesturing to the board. "There are over thirty-seven quadrillion vigintillion legal positions – and that's only eight-point-six-six percent of all possible combinations! Yet you've managed to defeat me every single time! How is it that you know the precise combinations required to outplay me?"

Yumi blinked, a bit taken aback by Aelita's rather detailed rant. Soon enough, however, Yumi began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Aelita demanded, frowning between confusion and irritation. Yumi just shook her head.

"You are, of course," Yumi snorted. The response didn't seem to lighten Aelita's mood, so Yumi cleared her throat. " _Go_ isn't about knowing all the combinations to win, Aelita, or even knowing what combinations to use against your opponent. It's about strategy – carefully positioning your pieces and taking advantage of your opponent's mistakes. Planning is important but so is reaction."

"But isn't that what strategy is?" Aelita shook her head mystified. "Predicting the possible moves of your opponent and formulating appropriate methods of response?"

"Yes and no," Yumi replied. "It's not so much about prediction as anticipation. You can't predict everything your opponent _can_ do – you said it yourself, there over thirty-seven quadrillion vinillion-"

"Vigintillion," Aelita mumbled.

"Whatever, point being there are way too many moves to consider," Yumi retorted. "So you have to anticipate what your opponent _will_ do. You must know how they think and plan accordingly. And if they don't do so, you need to reevaluate your plan, take advantage of their mistakes. Understand?"

Aelita chewed her lip thoughtfully before slowly nodding.

"I think so," she ventured. "You are saying that to strategize effectively, you must anticipate someone's actions, first knowing how they are inclined to act, then predicting accordingly, eliminating courses of action for which a person is less likely to take, and if they do something unexpected to adjust accordingly?"

Yumi shrugged, the convoluted explanation going over her. "Sure," she said. "Something like that. Let's just say that the best way to beat your opponent is to know her."

"I see," Aelita pondered. "Could we start over once more?"

Yumi glanced at her watch. It was half past nine. "Probably not. It's getting late. I should be heading home." Standing up, Yumi reached for the board but stopped with her hand hovering over it. "If you want, I can leave this with you. Y'know, if you want to practice or something?"

Aelita glanced almost longingly at the game but shook her head.

"No, I am fine," she said. "You are right. It is getting late. And I have work to do."

Aelita stood up, grabbing the board game in the process and handing it to Yumi.

"Thank you for your company. It was…fun," Aelita said as Yumi took the board. "Goodnight, Yumi."

"Yeah, goodnight to you, too," Yumi waved awkwardly, shuffling the board underneath her arm. "See you tomorrow?"

Aelita hesitated for a moment as Yumi looked on expectantly.

"See you tomorrow," Aelita nodded.

With a final wave, Yumi hefted the board and left Aelita's room, the door closing shut behind her. Walking down the hallway, Yumi passed Jim on the way to the stairs.

"Yumi, what are you doing here?" The bulky man asked.

"Just visiting," Yumi shrugged. "Aelita and I were playing _Go_."

" _Go_ , huh?" Jim scratched his chin. "You know, back in the day, I played _Go_ myself. Was pretty good at it, too," Jim puffed out his chest proudly. "Made it all the way to the Fujitsu Cup!"

"Really?" Yumi raised an eyebrow skeptically. She couldn't picture Jim sitting down long enough to finish a game of _Go_ , let alone win one. Still, she supposed it wasn't as out there as killer beavers. "Did you win?"

"Well, I, uh," Jim cleared his throat. "I'd actually rather not talk about it. Besides," Jim added gruffly. "It's almost curfew, so you best be getting home!"

"On my way," Yumi smiled, giving the man a wave. "Goodnight, Jim."

The man grunted in response before resuming his patrol of the dormitory halls. Yumi had just reached the stairs when, for the second time that day, she nearly ran into Jeremy.

"Whoa, Jeremy!" Yumi drew up short, both kids jerking to a halt as Yumi let out a laugh. "We need to stop meeting like this! People will start thinking things."

Jeremy shook of his momentary surprise. He hadn't been walking particularly fast, but he also hadn't been paying attention to where he was going. And for him, that could be equally as dangerous.

"Um, yeah, sure," Jeremy mumbled, taking little notice of Yumi's joke. The girl frowned. Something was off with Jeremy.

"Hey Jeremy, you alright?" Yumi asked.

"What? No, I'm fine," the boy in question shook his head. "It's just...," he trailed off before something struck him. "Wait, have you spent all day with Aelita?"

"Yeah, why? Is there a problem?" Yumi asked, a bit unsure what Jeremy was getting at. "I told you before that I was going to see if she was up for a little game."

"Was she?" Jeremy asked. Yumi looked him over nervously. The way he asked the question hinted that there was something else to it.

"Yeah, actually," Yumi nodded. "She got pretty into it, too. We've spent the last several hours playing."

"Really?" Jeremy blinked in surprise. "How on Earth did you get her to do that?"

Yumi shrugged.

"I beat her," Yumi smirked. "Guess she doesn't like to lose."

Jeremy put a hand to his chin in thought.

"What game was it?" He asked after a while. Yumi pulled the board out and showed it to him.

"It's called _Go_. It's a very old Chinese game and very popular," Yumi explained.

"Looks simple enough," Jeremy noted to Yumi's irritation. What was it with Einsteins' and their assumptions?

"Well, looks can be deceiving," Yumi replied. "Aelita said there were over thirty-six quadrillion vermilion legal moves or something."

"It's vigintillion, actually," Jeremy corrected. "I'm surprised she bothered looking up the number of legal moves."

"She didn't," Yumi said. "I think she just came up with it in her head while we were playing our first game. Probably why she was so distracted."

Jeremy stared at her like she'd just told him Aelita had turned into a tengu and flown away.

"What?"

"Yumi," Jeremy began. "You do realize how big a vigintillion is, right?"

"Um," Yumi pursed her lips. "I'm guessing really big?"

"Try mind-boggling gargantuan! A vigintillion has sixty-three zeros," Jeremy explained. "For crying out loud, only ten quadrillion of them is a low estimate for the number of atoms in the observable _universe!_ "

"Okay, fun fact," Yumi said. "But what's your point?"

Jeremy sighed, rubbing his eyes in exasperation.

"The point is," Jeremy enunciated. "Is that you don't just calculate any number of vigintillion in your head, let alone quadrillions of them! Especially not when said number is describing the number of legal moves in a game!"

"Well, isn't Aelita connected to the supercomputer?" Yumi asked, tapping her foot impatiently. "Doesn't it make her smarter or something?"

"Well, yeah," Jeremy said. "But, she still shouldn't be able to-" Jeremy's eyes widened. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Yumi narrowed her eyes. "What aren't you telling me, Jeremy?"

Jeremy drew in an uncomfortable breath.

"Aelita's been sneaking into the computer lab," Jeremy admitted, quickly, like he was tearing off a band-aid.

"Sneaking?" Yumi exclaimed. "What do you mean? I mean, how do you even know she was sneaking? Maybe she just didn't tell you she was going to the lab. You know she's been sort of…stand-offish these last few days after all."

"Yumi," Jeremy shook his head. "She deleted her activity logs. The only reason I know it was her was because I checked the camera. Otherwise, I'd have had no idea."

A sinking feeling settled in Yumi's stomach.

"What was she doing?"

"I don't know," Jeremy admitted. "Like I said, the activity logs were deleted, but with what you've told me about Aelita calculating the legal moves of…"

" _Go_ ," Yumi supplied.

"Right," Jeremy continued. "Now that you told me that, I think I might know what she's been up to. Though I hope I'm wrong."

"Why? What is it?"

Another moment of hesitation

"You remember that headset I tried to build? The one that was supposed to increase my intelligence?"

"Yeah," Yumi said. "How could I forget? You made us go through, like, a thousand return trips just to figure out it didn't work. What, you think Aelita's trying to use it?"

"Maybe," Jeremy said, half to himself. "It's the only thing that could explain why she was able to make such a complex calculation in her head. Plus, it would account for her recent behavior. And how she could come up with a solution for the tracking program so quickly. Maybe the whole thing with the scyphozoa was too much for her. Maybe-"

"Jeremy," Yumi placed a hand on his shoulder. "As strange as it is for me to say this to you, you need to stop and think for a moment. What did the headset do, exactly?"

"It used the return trips to increase my intelligence by a factor of ten," Jeremy frowned, unsure at what Yumi was getting at. "Theoretically. Why?"

"Well, how many return trips have we had recently since Aelita's been acting strange?" Yumi asked.

"None," Jeremy said, beginning to see her point.

"And did the headset actually work?"

"Well, no."

"And did you even see Aelita with a headset like the one you made?"

"No," Jeremy admitted. "But what else could it be?"

"Jeremy," Yumi sighed. "I think you just might not be willing to admit that Aelita getting her memories back has changed her. She's not the same person she was before. Believe me, I wish she was, but for better or for worse, this is who she is now. Who she was before Lyoko for all we know."

Jeremy seemed shrink before Yumi's eyes.

"I guess you're right," Jeremy sighed. "Honestly, I've…I've been thinking the same thing, too. I just didn't want to admit it. And when I saw that Aelita had been sneaking into the lab, I thought…I don't know what I thought." Jeremy covered his face. "I just…I don't understand why she doesn't trust me anymore. I mean, yeah, she got her memories back, but she has all the memories she made with us, too."

"And we just need to wait for her to remember that," Yumi said. Yumi shifted the board game back under her arm and started walking down the stairs again, giving Jeremy a consoling pat on his shoulder as she walked past. "We just have to be patient, Jeremy. She's still our friend, even if she doesn't act like it sometimes."

"I guess you're right," Jeremy muttered without turning around. "Goodnight, Yumi."

"Goodnight," Yumi replied. "And Jeremy?"

The boy turned to look down the stairs where Yumi had paused to look up at him.

"Yes?"

"Might want to run a few tests on Aelita anyways." Jeremy furrowed his brows, confused at Yumi's change of tone. The girl shrugged. "Better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure you can find an excuse to get her into a scanner."

"I…won't have to," Jeremy shook his head, still a bit taken aback by Yumi's advice. "Aelita went to Lyoko yesterday to do some routine scans on some of the towers. I can look at those scanner logs."

"Okay," Yumi nodded. "Do what you must. Just promise me, if it turns out Aelita's alright, that you'll remember what I said?"

"Promise," Jeremy nodded, giving his friend a tentative smile. Yumi returned it with one of her own before finally making her way out of sight down the stairwell.

For a moment, Jeremy stood there, contemplating what to do. Finally, with a shake of his head, Jeremy made his way back down the stairs, away from his room.

"Forget curfew," Jeremy muttered as he made his way to the secret passage that led to the factory. "I've got work to do."

 **Post Author's Note: And that's it! Hope I didn't disappoint. It was a pain trying to find out what game Aelita and Yumi were playing in _Straight to Heart_ , but as soon as I saw it, I knew what I had to write. And yes, before you say anything, the supercomputer actually _does_ have a synthesized voice (the standard computer female). We just don't hear it a lot. I know, I was surprised too, and honestly I don't even remember which episodes have it. Anyways, review if you feel inclined to (any and all are welcome) and favorite if you like this story. So stick around for the conclusion to this arc: Splitting Image Part 3.  
**


	5. Splitting Image Part 3

**Disclaimer: Doth thou not knowest? Nothing within these pages to me belongs!**

 **Author's Note: Welcome back, and thank you for all the reviews. I need to remember to check out Serial Experiments Lain some time so I have some context (not that I mind having no clue). And let's see if any of your ideas on what's going on with Aelita hold up (be sure to let me know). Anyways, here's a true test to see if I can keep writing this Aelita well, so hope you enjoy!**

Ringing broke the soft, warm silence of sleep. Jeremy bolted upright at the sudden racket. Looking about in a frantic, drowsy confusion, Jeremy realized where the ringing was coming from. Pulling out his cellphone, Jeremy pressed 'talk' and held it to his ear.

"'ello?" He mumbled, rubbing his still heavy eyes. Glancing at the time, he saw it was ten in the morning.

"Jeremy? It's me, Yumi," a voice came from the other end. "Please tell me you didn't spend all night in the lab."

Jeremy glanced around the bright interior of the computer lab. It was amazing that he had managed to sleep at all with the light levels as they were, though it could have been because, despite being made of metal, buried in the earth, and surrounded by a river, the cavernous room was surprisingly rather warm, comfortably so.

"Uh, I didn't spend all night in the lab?" Jeremy managed to say, holding back a yawn.

"Your words fill me with reassurance," Yumi replied dryly. "Well, I was planning on visiting Aelita again. Have you found anything new?"

Jeremy fumbled around with the keyboard, eyes blinking away sleep as he inspected the screen in front of him.

"No, not yet," Jeremy said, not able to hold back a yawn this time. "But I still need to run a comparison check on Aelita's materialization logs. I'll call you when I find out more. Or don't."

"Alright, Jeremy," Yumi said. "Just remember what I told you."

"Yeah, I will," Jeremy said. "Talk to you later."

Yumi hummed in agreement before hanging up. Returning his phone to his pocket, Jeremy shook the last bit of sleep away and began pulling up Aelita's materialization logs. These logs monitored everything from overall health to brain activity.

 _Imagine what else these could be used for,_ Jeremy thought to himself, not for the first time lamenting the world's loss of such a brilliant mind as Franz Hopper's. The scanners made CAT scans look obsolete in comparison.

Jeremy went straight for the records of Aelita's brain activity. Two images showcasing a complex map of neural activity appeared on-screen, one from about two weeks ago, the other from two days ago. Both were recorded while Aelita was virtualized on Lyoko, as constant monitoring of virtualized subjects was a routine procedure for the supercomputer. If anything was wrong with Aelita, it would likely show up there. Not that he wouldn't check her physical health, of course, if nothing showed up. Except something did show up.

"Oh, no," Jeremy mumbled, eyes widening as he compared the two. He would have to run a full diagnostic to be sure, but if what he was seeing was right…

"I have to warn Yumi!"

* * *

Yumi walked along the sidewalk that led to Kadic's front gate, board game in hand. She'd meant to arrive earlier but some last-minute chores her mother had piled on her made the girl leave an hour later than she planned.

"Oh well," she said to herself as the mid-morning breeze tousled her hair. "At least I didn't have anything scheduled."

Which was true, neither she nor Aelita had set a time for meeting up today. Either way, Yumi figured Aelita would probably enjoy the extra hour to herself working on whatever it was she doing these days. Yumi nodded to Kadic's gatekeeper as she entered the school grounds, exchanging a polite greeting. She had just reached the dormitory when a familiar voice came from the direction of the forest.

"Yumi! W-wait up!" Yumi turned to see Jeremy running towards her. He didn't have his laptop or bag with him so Yumi assumed he was in a hurry. As if his running hadn't made that abundantly clear.

"What is it, Jeremy?" Yumi said as Jeremy skidded to a stop in front of her and caught his breath. "We were on the phone just an hour ago, what's up?"

"I-I tried to call you, but Hiroki picked up," Jeremy panted, hands on his knees.

"Hiroki?" Yumi frowned. She felt around her pockets. "Damn, I must have left my cell at home."

"Doesn't matter," Jeremy breathed. "At least I caught you."

"Yeah, alright, so what's this about? Is it about Aelita?" Yumi shifted her game to a more comfortable position.

"Yes. Well, no. Kind of?" Jeremy said, trying to gather his thoughts.

"Okay, slow down, Einstein, before you asphyxiate," Yumi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Just breath and tell me: is Aelita alright?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Jeremy straightened up, finally having caught his breath. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Yumi frowned, confused. "How can you not know? I thought you ran a bunch of scans and stuff."

"I don't know because…because she," Jeremy pointed in the vague direction of Aelita's room. "Isn't Aelita."

Yumi could have sworn her heart skipped a beat and she had to force herself not to drop her board in shock.

"What!?" Yumi barely avoided yelling. "What are you talking about?"

"I compared her brain activity from two weeks ago to yesterday's. They were completely different. At first I thought it might have been just the standard deviations, but then I compared it to a more recent scan, a little over a week ago, and it still wasn't even close to matching up." He was rambling. "So then I thought it might have been her memories causing it, so-"

"Jeremy," Yumi snapped. "Point. Now."

Jeremy took a deep breath.

"I looked at her brain activity right before and after she supposedly got her memories back," Jeremy said. "They were completely different, too different to just be the result of her getting her memory back."

"So, you're saying…," Yumi trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought, but Jeremy did it for her.

"I'm saying that whatever woke up with Aelita's memories isn't Aelita," Jeremy said. "Something took over her body."

"Xana?" Yumi sucked in her breath. What else could it be? Strangely, Jeremy seemed unsure.

"I don't know," he admitted. "This isn't like anything Xana has done before, and there aren't any active towers – I should know, I checked. All of them are quiet, even the one in Sector Five."

Yumi bit her lip, thinking. What else could it be besides Xana? Yumi's jaw clenched. It didn't matter what it was. All that mattered was that it had stolen Aelita's body, infiltrated the lab, and pretended to be their friend. And that meant that Aelita might be lost somewhere on Lyoko…or worse.

"Well, there's only one thing to do," Yumi said, determination resonating in her voice. Jeremy looked up in surprise.

"What's that?"

"Simple," Yumi said, a hard glint in her eyes. "We're going to have a little chat with 'Aelita'."

Jeremy looked for a moment like he was about to point out the obvious risks in Yumi's plan, but the look in his older friend's eyes banished all thoughts of warning. She was going to Aelita whether he came along or not.

 _I hope I'm not going to regret this,_ Jeremy thought.

Exhaling nervously, Jeremy nodded his head.

* * *

Aelita gazed at her computer in disgust. Of course she could accidentally help Jeremy complete his Xana tracking program yet not be able to get her own to work. Aelita let out a frustrated sigh as she buried her head in her hands.

She could not be doing this wrong. She knew too much, was capable of too much, to make a mistake. Her method had to be wrong. That was the only explanation: she was going about the procedure the wrong way. But how? What was the right way? Surely the others would be in a state similar to what she had been in.

Then again…

Aelita looked up at the screen, not really seeing the code she had memorized as soon as she had written it. She sighed again, this time out of resignation. She would have to look through… _his_ notes. The pinkette ground her teeth. She could not even think his name without being overwhelmed by disgust.

But that did not matter now, reason told her that only _he_ could help her now. Mind made up, Aelita pushed out her chair and stood up. It was at that moment that a knock came from the door.

* * *

The door opened sooner than Yumi expected. 'Aelita' must have already been standing. The pinkette looked unconcerned at the sight of the older girl.

"Oh, Yumi, it's you," 'Aelita' said. Yumi's fist clenched ever so slightly. She couldn't believe she'd fallen for this ruse. "I'm afraid I don't have time to…," 'Aelita' trailed off, puzzled at the sight of Jeremy. "What is Jeremy doing here? Is something the matter?"

Yumi shared a quick look with Jeremy before deciding to take the lead.

"We need to talk," Yumi said tersely, pushing her way past 'Aelita' and into the room. Jeremy tagged along more timidly, shooting a nervous glance at 'Aelita'.

Still puzzle, and now not so unconcerned, 'Aelita' closed the door.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Is it Xana?"

"I don't know," Yumi almost snapped. "You tell me."

'Aelita' blinked in surprise, the first expression of shock Yumi had ever really seen from her.

"I..," she seemed to be struggling with what to say. "I do not understand. What is going on Yumi?"

"What's going on is that we know you're not Aelita," Jeremy butted in, surprising Yumi with bluntness. "I looked at the virtualization and materialization scans from the mission to Sector Five a week ago. The scans before and after you died don't match up at all," Jeremy was now standing face to face with 'Aelita', whose eyes had started to widen, and Yumi began to see that Jeremy's former timidity had simply been the calm before the storm. He might have lost his best friend, and standing before him might be the one responsible. "So who _are_ you!"

"Slow down," Yumi rested a hand on Jeremy's shoulder, pulling him gently back, trying to defuse the situation. Her next words were addressed to 'Aelita'. "Answer the question."

For a moment, it looked like 'Aelita' was still trying to understand the situation she was in. Understandable given that Jeremy rarely got so angry. Then she assumed her calm, emotionless mask once more, which Yumi now realized wasn't a mask at all but her true face.

"You do not know what you are talking about," 'Aelita 'said, eyes colder than Yumi had ever seen them. "I _am_ Aelita."

"Cut it," Yumi snapped, more disturbed than anything else. "Do you think we're stupid? You heard what Jeremy said. We know you aren't Aelita."

"Oh, really," 'Aelita' tilted her head. "Then who do _you_ think Aelita is? That foolish girl Xana killed? She was nothing but a _shadow_ of me. A poor reflection."

"You're lying!" Jeremy nearly shouted. "She was our friend!"

Now Aelita's cold eyes turned to Jeremy.

"Oh, I have no doubt of that," she said. "But that does not make her any more Aelita than it does me."

"Oh, yeah?" Yumi said. "Well if you're the real Aelita then where have you been all this time, huh? Because last I checked, ours was around long before you."

" _I_ was doing my job!" Aelita's eyes finally flashed with emotion, something akin to contempt. " _I_ was trying to keep Lyoko from collapsing while you and Xana playing your little game. _I_ was close to a solution, too. But then that little _fool_ decided to sacrifice herself and shut down the supercomputer, so when Xana finally dealt with her, _I_ took her place."

"That can't be true," Jeremy exclaimed. "I don't know who you really are, but Franz Hopper would never let that happen!"

Aelita glared at Jeremy. Then she started to laugh. Yumi shared a nervous glance with Jeremy. Aelita's laugh was the most disturbing thing she had ever heard. It had no humor in it. Instead, it was cold, filled with irony and contempt.

"You think you know my father?" Aelita snarled. "He would not care what happened to me! Not that he can, of course," Aelita added, almost dismissively. "Xana killed _him_ a long time ago."

Now it was Yumi's turn to be shocked, and it seemed like Jeremy shared the feeling. Of course, the girl could be lying, but the way she said it, it didn't sound like a lie.

"But that's not…possible," Jeremy said. He was starting to calm down and think. "Franz Hopper tried saved his daughter. He's helped us before…he helped us decrypt his diary."

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Aelita snapped. "That was me, you imbecile. _I_ helped you. Xana was, and still is, as much a threat to me as she was you. I thought that by helping you I could get Xana under control. Obviously, I was wrong."

The contempt in her voice was obviously directed at their failure to stop Xana's escape.

Yumi wasn't sure how to proceed, so she just asked, "Then why not help us when we were getting Aelita's memories back? Why not just tell us?"

"Because I could not," Aelita said. To Yumi's keen eyes she seemed to deflate a bit.

 _So, you're not all high and mighty after all,_ Yumi thought. _I'll keep that in mind_.

"My job was to regulate Lyoko," Aelita continued. "From the inside; Xana was meant to deal with external factors. It was not until this body was vacant that I could assume a suitable form for communication."

Yumi and Jeremy weren't sure what to think as they eyed each other. Aelita narrowed her eyes.

"If you don't believe me," Aelita said. "I can show you the logs in Franz Hopper's diary that will prove I am who I say I am. I know there are parts you have not been able to decrypt, Jeremy."

Yumi looked at Jeremy.

"It's true," he admitted. "There are parts here and there that I haven't been able to crack." Then he glared at Aelita. "But that doesn't mean I believe you, and it doesn't give you the right to take her body, shadow or not!"

"That is debatable," Aelita said.

"No, it's not," Yumi said firmly, stepping closer to Aelita so she loomed over the younger girl. "You're going to show us those logs. Then we're going to decide what to do with you."

"You will not hurt me. Not if you want to fight Xana," Aelita smirked. "Don't forget, I hold the Keys to Lyoko. You need me."

That was the limit for Yumi. The dark-haired girl leaned over Aelita, staring her in the eyes, making her anger more than apparent.

"We'll see," Yumi growled, and for once, she could see a shimmer of what might have been fear in Aelita's eyes. She grabbed Aelita by the shoulders and, turning her around, pushed her towards the door. "Let's get going."

* * *

Aelita stood in silence as the elevator trundled downwards. Jeremy and Yumi were standing behind her, no doubt to keep a close eye on her. Any camaraderie she had shared with Yumi had evaporated back at Kadic, and Aelita couldn't help but feel a bit remorseful about that. For what it was worth, which probably wasn't much given the last expressions she had seen on her companions' faces, she had…enjoyed their time together. Not for the first time that morning, Aelita couldn't help but wonder if she hadn't pushed the two too far. Another reason to keep her emotions in check in the future, they were bound to get her in trouble.

Finally, the lift jerked to a stop and, after she entered the code under the watchful eyes of her 'friends', the massive vault doors hissed open. Not waiting for what she felt would be an obligatory push from Yumi, Aelita stepped into the lab, walking straight for the supercomputer. She heard Yumi shuffle in alarm behind her. Aelita guessed she was moving too fast for the other girl's liking.

"It's okay, Yumi," Jeremy was the voice of reason for a change. "We need answers."

"And you will get them," Aelita said over her shoulder, seating herself at the computer, logging in swiftly. Almost instinctively, she began to make to prevent the activity logs from being recorded on. Fortunately, she remembered herself in time and went straight for the diary entries. Secrecy, at least concerning that, would do her no good here. Besides, best not to let Jeremy know how she kept the logs from being recording.

"Here," Aelita announced as she pulled up and decrypted the logs she was looking for. The logs she had prevented Jeremy from accessing.

Jeremy and Yumi leaned over her shoulders, one on each side. The message was clear.

As Waldo Schaeffer appeared on-screen, Aelita couldn't hold back a scowl. She loathed the man before her for everything he had done to her, and yet…at the same time she couldn't hold back the wave of grief that struck every time she thought of him. Despite all the bad memories, there were good ones, too.

"Well?" Yumi asked sharply. Aelita started, realizing she had fallen into her own thoughts. "You gonna play it or not?"

"O-of course," Aelita said, forcing herself to regain her focus. Pushing her reservations aside, Aelita pressed the space bar, beginning the video log.

"9 June 1994, Day 68," Schaeffer's voice came through her headset and the speakers clearly. Muting the headphones, Aelita waited as Yumi and Jeremy listened. She didn't have to herself; she already knew what it said:

"I was unable to obtain the parts necessary to complete the supercomputer. A portion of the primary processing grid was missing, and I still lacked a suitable memory core. I grew desperate. Obtaining the materials to complete my quantum supercomputer was out of the question. But eventually I found a way. It was dangerous, and I couldn't bear the thought of it at first. I would have done it myself, but…," here he would sigh. Hypocrite. "I had no choice. I _had_ to complete Lyoko if I was ever to stop Project Carthage from coming to fruition. The stakes were just too high." Sure they were. "So, I made a decision. My daughter, Aelita, would be the one to run the supercomputer, to regulate it at its finest level, and ultimately give Lyoko life."

Aelita fast-forwarded to the next log of interest. They didn't need to hear the rest. Not that she had decrypted anyways. Without needing to listen, Aelita resumed the logs where she wanted. The time was much later, and it revealed Schaeffer once more; his hair was a mess and his beard bedraggled.

"9 June 1994, Day 2545," he would resume. Aelita kept the headphones muted. She presumed Jeremy and Yumi had been watching in silence, given that neither of them had tried to get her attention. "I've done it! I've finally done it!" He would say, leaning closer to the screen in his excitement. Involuntarily, Aelita began to lean back but forced herself to sit straight. "I feared I would never again be able to be with my little girl. Not while Project Carthage was still out there. Not while Lyoko still exists…while the supercomputer still exists." Each word would have been labored, like he actually meant them. "But now, it doesn't matter if Carthage is destroyed or Lyoko remains. I've managed to create a virtual avatar for her while maintaining her function as the Memory Core. She will have her memories of Earth…and of me, of course."

 _Only the ones you wanted her to remember,_ Aelita snarled silently. _I got stuck with the rest._

"We can be together, now, forever. No matter what. We can always be together."

Aelita stopped the log, ripped off the headset, and, swiveling around, jumped out of the chair. Even without hearing his words, Aelita couldn't stand to watch another minute. They had seen all they needed to see, anyways.

Yumi and Jeremy remained silent, neither of them moving to stop her. Glancing back at them, Aelita saw them share the same look. It was a mixture of confusion and anxiety. The fools still didn't understand.

"What…why did you show us this?" Jeremy asked at last, he and Yumi turning to face the pinkette. "Why not sooner?"

"What would that have accomplished?" Aelita asked, to exhausted mentally to muster any form of retort. "She – the _other_ Aelita – was already unstable enough as it was thinking she was the real me. You know what she did – she practically attempted suicide when she learned what she thought was the truth. She could not handle it."

"You're wrong!" Jeremy burst out. "She did it because she wanted to protect us!"

Aelita stared at him. He wasn't wrong, of course. But he wasn't right, either. The other pulled the switch to end her own misery as much as to end the danger to her friends.

"Of course she did," Aelita said out loud. There was no need to antagonize Yumi or Jeremy any more than they already were. "My…father," she had to spit the word out. "Did not just create her to be a companion. He also made her to be a fail-safe in case Xana got out of control."

 _Or me_ , Aelita added bitterly and silently.

"Why do you think she had the only other Keys to Lyoko?"

"Wait," Yumi broke in. "Don't you have the Keys to Lyoko as well? I mean, you did kinda revive Lyoko and all."

"Those keys were my," she couldn't say it again, "were _his_ keys. When Xana killed him, I took them before she could take them. They are _mine_ now."

Jeremy and Yumi were silence once more, processing all they had heard. After a few moments, Jeremy cleared his throat nervously.

"T-there's just one thing I don't understand," Jeremy's voice tremored, and Aelita knew then what he was going to ask. "W-hat happened to Aelita? Our Aelita, I mean? Is she...?"

Aelita looked him in the eyes. She could see him begging her for the answer he wanted. But it wasn't one she could give. Too much was at stake.

"I told you before," Aelita said, without a hint of emotion in her voice. "Xana killed her. She is dead. I am…sorry."

Even with her inexperience with people, Aelita could see that something broke inside of Jeremy. It was almost enough to make her regret what she'd done. Almost. Aelita half-expected him to rage, to shout in denial, to swear that he would find the other regardless. Instead, he simply nodded shakily and began to totter towards the elevator, as if his legs were about to give out. Who knew, maybe they were.

"Okay, I see," Jeremy rasped, holding something back. "I-" His voice broke and he hurried into the lift, pressing the button clumsily. The last Aelita saw of him was him leaning against the side of the elevator, hand covering his face.

Aelita looked over to Yumi, wary of her reaction. The other girl had been following Jeremy with her eyes but now turned them to Aelita. The pinkette wasn't able to discern what she was thinking.

"That's it?" Yumi asked. "You're just going to leave him like that? After what you _just_ told him?"

Aelita wasn't sure what to say. It was certainly not what she'd expected Yumi to say. Once more she'd expected a bit more…anger. Or at least denial.

"I don't understand," was all Aelita had to say. Yumi sighed.

"I suppose you don't," she said, closing her eyes. "I guess it's because you're not her. You don't have her memories. Just yours. You don't know how much she meant to him"

Aelita frowned. What have given her that idea? Of course she knew how much the other had meant to Jeremy.

"But I _do_ remember…" Aelita said.

Suddenly Aelita felt a painful sting on her cheek. She stumbled backwards and it took her a moment to realize Yumi had slapped her. The older girl seemed as surprised at what she had done as Aelita. For a moment, Yumi looked like she was about to apologize. Instead, she clenched her fist, shaking ever so slightly.

"You remember?" Yumi's voice shook as well, but it wasn't out of grief. "Then _how_ can you just stand there and let him _walk away_!"

Her voice had nearly risen to a shout, and Aelita slowly backed away, unsure if Yumi was about to hit her again. She wasn't though and simply stood where she was with clenched fists. It was then that Aelita began to understand Yumi's anger.

"Yumi, I…," she wasn't used to apologies, but decided that, all things considered, one was probably in order. Yumi ignored her though.

"No," Yumi said firmly, not even looking at Aelita. "Until _I_ come to _you_ , I don't want to hear or see you again. Understood?"

Aelita was shocked by this. She hadn't expected any of this to happen. None of it was supposed to. Again, the situation was almost enough to make Aelita change her mind. But only almost. So instead she nodded, too late realizing that Yumi wasn't looking at her. It didn't matter, though, as Yumi left the same way as Jeremy without a word, leaving Aelita behind with her own thoughts.

Surprisingly, the pinkette felt lonely. Resting a hand on her cheek, still stinging and no doubt red, Aelita chewed her lip thoughtfully. Then she shook her head. The sudden impact had shocked her out of her emotional control. She'd never experienced anything quite like it. Say what she would about her father, until he had betrayed her, he had treated her well.

Gazing down at the frozen screen, still displaying _his_ unkempt, mad face, Aelita took a deep breath and steadied herself. Yumi and Jeremy would recover. So would the others when they learned. She knew enough from her memories to be sure of that. And now that Xana was free, they wouldn't feel inclined to deactivate the supercomputer, not if they wanted to avenge their friend and stop Xana.

 _No_ , Aelita decided as she hovered her finger over the keyboard. _Everything is going just fine._

With that, she pressed down firmly, turning off the interface before she, too, left. She had work to do, after all.

 **Post Author's Note: Well, there was that. I have to admit, I was shaking while writing the end of that (though that could have just been because it was 1 o'clock in the morning and a bit nippy thanks to the air conditioner). Anyways, let me know what you think! For this chapter especially, I'm curious to know. Anyways, review if you feel inclined to and favorite if you like. And I hope I'll see you for Broken Heart Part 1.**


	6. Broken Heart Part 1

**Disclaimer: No matter how long it takes me to post, it still doesn't belong to me.  
**

 **Author's Note: It has been too long since the last update. Though as much as I must apologize for that, I must thank those of you who remained patient and thank those of you who left reviews even more. But enough of my chatter, hope you enjoy!**

 _Aelita walked through the large empty space within the warehouse portion of the factory. She couldn't remember why she was there but couldn't escape the drive to keep moving forward. Something nagged at her from the back of her mind. She couldn't pin it down. A shadow in her peripheral caught her eye. Whirling towards the shape, Aelita thought she saw Yumi duck into the elevator. When she got there, the other girl was nowhere to be found._

" _Yumi?" Aelita heard herself call out._

 _The only reply she got was the elevator doors closing behind her. Rushing to the doors, Aelita tried to force them open. Too late, as the elevator began its descent._

But this is impossible _, the thought came to Aelita, almost as if from elsewhere._ I didn't activate the lift.

 _Nonetheless, the elevator continued ever downwards, finally grinding to a halt after what seemed an eternity. Again, the doors moved without her consent, opening to reveal the computer lab. Jeremy sat in the seat before the computer terminal. His face was unreadable and his eyes were obscured by the bright light of the room reflecting off his glasses._

Strange _, Aelita thought again._ I had not realized it was so bright in here.

 _Aloud, she said, "Jeremy, what's going on?"_

 _The boy didn't respond, swiveling back around to face the computer screen, obscured by his chair. A seed of muddled frustration began to sprout in Aelita. Urged forward, Aelita stomped up to the chair and swung it around, with surprisingly little effort, ready to confront Jeremy._

 _Only it wasn't Jeremy. Aelita stumbled back as a wave of emotions spilled over her. Grief. Loathing. Remorse. And, most surprisingly of all, a touch of fear._

" _Hello, my dear. It is so good to see you again after all these years."_

 _The man stood up, and Waldo Schaeffer loomed over Aelita like a tower. She tried to back away but her legs wouldn't move._

" _I need your help, Aelita," the man continued, walking towards her. "I need your help to finish my great project."_

 _Aelita's legs moved and she stumbled back, falling to the floor. As she hit the floor, bands of metal sprung up, encircling her hands, legs, and neck. They weren't in the computer lab anymore, but the room far below it where the supercomputer was housed._

No, this is impossible _, the thoughts came again. Aelita didn't know where they came from even though she wanted to listen to them so much._

" _Don't worry, Aelita," her father's voice came. "It will all be over soon. We'll be together. Forever. You'll see. We will be happy."_

 _Now Aelita was wrapped in the myriad of wires that poured out of the supercomputer, suddenly dismantled and incomplete, but they held her as firmly as the metal straps had. Schaeffer loomed over her, needle in hand._

" _No!" Aelita's eyes widened in shock and fear._

 _She struggled fiercely against her bindings. Somehow she knew what was going to happen._

" _No!" She cried out again as the needle plunged through her skin with barely a prick of pain. But it was pain that didn't go away or diminish. In fact, it only got worse. It grew and grew until the whole world was breaking apart, shattering like glass, each piece filling the world with its own color. Green appeared first. Then chartreuse, purple, blue, yellow, red, pink, cyan , until the world was a chaotic kaleidoscope of colors before Aelita's eyes. It was a world on the brink of breaking. Aelita could feel it as the pain grew so intense she was no longer sure whether it was her body or mind that suffered._

This isn't real _, her thoughts begged of her._

" _This isn't real," Aelita heard herself mumble as her father's form loomed over. She wouldn't go through this again._

 _The world shattered, and the pain Aelita felt before was nothing compared to the agony that coursed through her now, but even that, she knew, would not compare to what would follow. Amazement and terror coursed through her with unbearable intensity._

 _She couldn't! Not again!_

"NO!" Aelita's scream bled into the waking world as she shot up in her bed, the blankets covering her flying off. Her breathing was heavy and frantic; her eyes wide and dilated; her hair was a mess; sweat glistened on her skin; and tears poured in streams down her cheeks.

For a moment, it was if the pain from her dream had followed her and blinded her, but gradually Aelita's eyes adjusted, and after a few moments more she remembered where she was. Nevertheless, it was several minutes before her heart stopped pounding and her breathing settled. All that time, she just sat there, staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

Then slowly she began to blink, her fists clenched tightly around her bedsheets. The horror of the nightmare had passed, even if its shadow remained cast over her.

 _It was just a dream,_ Aelita thought, now realizing the thoughts that she had heard before were merely her own, from the part of her that had been aware of the dream for what it truly was.

"Just a dream," Aelita murmured to herself. Nonetheless, her voice shook. Closing her eyes, Aelita attempted to compose herself. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to her. It had even happened to the other her, albeit less intensely. After all, the airheaded fool had only been given the good memories. More or less.

Aelita took solace from her contempt of the other pinkette. Clinging onto it, Aelita forced the nightmare out of her waking memory. She'd had a lot of practice putting such things out of mind, even if it was harder to accomplish now that she had a physical body.

Collected once more, Aelita wiped the trail of tears of her cheeks. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Aelita flipped off the covers, ignoring the feeling of cold air on her sweaty skin. Carefully, she set her feet on the floor and stood up, walking over to her computer.

There was no way she was going to sleep again. Not tonight anyways. Not after that. So, if she wasn't going to sleep, she might as well work. It had helped before, after all.

* * *

Jeremy stood nervously in front of Aelita's dorm room. He'd woken up earlier that morning. Given how poorly he'd been sleeping these last few days, Jeremy had decided not to try to go back to sleep. Instead, he had piddled away the next few hours just thinking. He couldn't bring himself to do anything else, not even work.

"Here goes nothing," Jeremy took a deep breath. Odd and Ulrich were coming back today, and he wanted Yumi and Aelita to be at the factory when they arrived. Yumi had already been given the memo. Now all that was left was Aelita.

Jeremy knocked on the door.

As soon as he had, Jeremy heard a crash from the other side followed by the sound of scrambling. Out of habit, Jeremy began to reach for the door handle, forgetting that it was probably locked. Fortunately, the door opened before he could try it. To say he was surprised by what he saw would be an understatement.

Aelita was dressed in her nightwear, a long pink t-shirt, now quite rumpled. Her hair was bedraggled, and her eyes weighed down by large, dark bags.

"Yumi, is-?" Aelita was saying as she opened the door. Upon not seeing the girl in question, Aelita blinked. "Oh, Jeremy. It's you."

Jeremy tried not to wince at the careless words. Glancing over the pinkette's shoulder, he thought he saw the cause of the earlier crash. The desk at Aelita's chair was overturned and the monitor on her screen displayed a uniform code of the same random characters. If Jeremy were to take a guess, he would have said she'd fallen asleep working. Apparently on top of her keyboard, too. He must have woken her.

 _I guess we're not all that different from each other._

As soon as the thought had crossed his mind, Jeremy rejected it. The other Aelita, _his_ Aelita, had always scolded him for doing the same thing. He wasn't about to justify it, especially not with this new Aelita.

"Yeah, it's me," Jeremy said lamely. "Are you alright? I heard a crash."

Jeremy felt obligated to ask, if only out of politeness. Aelita glanced over her shoulder bleary-eyed before looking back at him and shaking her head, bangs fluttering messily.

"N-no, I am fine," Aelita said. "You just…startled me, that's all. I was not expecting anyone to visit."

Jeremy felt there was something else she wasn't telling him, but he didn't push. In all honesty, he didn't think he cared at the moment.

"Well, I'm here," Jeremy shrugged. "And soon Odd and Ulrich will be here, too."

"Did you tell them about me?" Aelita asked, her face emotionless once more as she woke up fully.

"No," Jeremy shook his head. "They didn't have cell reception at their summer camp. Besides," Jeremy added, looking Aelita right in the eye. "I think it's best if they were told in person."

Aelita stood there for a moment before nodding.

"I see," she said at last. "I will get dressed. I presume you will want to meet them at the factory?"

"Yes, actually," Jeremy said, surprised that Aelita had known what he was thinking. "Yumi will be there too. We all will."

"Alright then," Aelita nodded.

Without another word, she shut her door, presumably to get dressed. Now alone, Jeremy let himself look like what he'd been feeling. Slumping against the opposite wall and sliding down to the floor, Jeremy rested his head back against the wall and gave a weary sigh.

"Well, that went well."

A few minutes later, Aelita's door opened and Jeremy leapt to his feet. The pinkette was once more in her usual attire. It was hard to believe that she wasn't the Aelita he had met over a year ago. The thought began to bring tears to his eyes, so he shook it off.

"Ready?" He asked, not letting his feelings show.

Aelita nodded. Though she still appeared tired physically, the pinkette's eyes were bright awake and as cool as ever.

"I am," she said and without another word followed Jeremy out into the forest.

As school hadn't technically started yet, there still weren't many students – or teachers for that matter. So the two continued in silence, undisturbed. Eventually though, for Jeremy at least, the silence began to get unbearable.

"So," Jeremy began awkwardly. Aelita glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, seeming neither interested nor disinterested. "What are you going to tell Odd and Ulrich?"

"I thought you were going to talk to them," Aelita replied, still casually keeping him in sight. "After all, the last time did not work out well for me."

Aelita rubbed her cheek, seeming to reminisce on something.

"Well, you were just a little blunt, that's all," Jeremy said tenuously. This was the first time he had really held a conversation with Aelita ever since he and Yumi had learned the truth. "It was all so sudden…"

Jeremy's words faded as he was reminded once again of who he lost. The boy sighed internally. These were just the kind of thoughts he had been trying to avoid. To his surprise, however, Aelita seemed to notice his change in mood.

"Are you doing well, Jeremy?" Aelita asked, turning her head to look at him fully. "You seem…different than I remember."

"That's one way to describe it," Jeremy gave a half-hearted laugh. "It's just…I'd already lost Aelita before – more than once actually."

"The incident with the hair," Aelita nodded. Jeremy was surprised she knew about it, but then, he supposed his Aelita's memories had come with her body. "I suppose it was unfortunate that my-"

The pinkette suddenly went silent, and it took a moment for Jeremy to process what she had been about to say.

"Wait," the boy jumped in front of her, bringing the girl to a halt. "What did you just say?"

"The incident with the hair," Aelita repeated. "I was referring to it."

"No, after that," Jeremy shook his head. "What did you start to say after that?"

"Nothing," Aelita shook her head. "Nothing important that is. Shall we continue to the factory?"

Aelita tried to push past Jeremy, but the boy wasn't going to give ground. Maybe it was because she wasn't his Aelita or maybe because he was too desperate for answers, but Jeremy wasn't going to let her off so easily.

"No, what was it?" He pressed. "You were about to say you did something."

Aelita remained tight-lipped and silent. Jeremy crossed his arms.

"We're not moving until you tell me," he said. "What did you do?"

Aelita closed her eyes and sighed.

"It was I who created the materialization program that you used on Yumi," Aelita explained. "I was going to say that it was unfortunate it could not have been used on… _her_."

Jeremy was surprised to say the least.

"What?" He exclaimed. "But I thought-"

"I was able to make the necessary modifications to your existing code." Aelita opened her eyes, snorting disdainfully. "What did you think? That Odd had somehow managed to accidentally modify and compile the right code by dropping some candy on it? The probability of that occurring is astronomical."

Jeremy shook his head.

"But why?" He asked. "Why did you give us that program? Yumi hadn't lost her codes yet."

"Did I not just say? It was not for Yumi," Aelita said. "It was for _your_ Aelita."

Once again, Jeremy's surprise knew no bounds.

"Why would you help us materialize Aelita? And why didn't you give us a program that could be used more than once?" Jeremy asked, feeling more and more confused by the moment.

Aelita sighed, almost like she was bored with what she no doubt felt was a tirade of questions on Jeremy's part.

"I will explain as simply as possible – so you will not have any more questions," Aelita said, the jab not going unnoticed by Jeremy. "But perhaps we can talk about it on the way? It will be a more _efficient_ use of our time."

Aelita gestured to the forest path behind Jeremy, and the boy realized he had stopped their journey to the factory to confront his companion.

"Okay," Jeremy consented. "While we walk."

Aelita once again resumed her place beside Jeremy as the two walked through the forest.

"To answer your first question," Aelita began. "I believed Aelita, the _othe_ r Aelita, would be safer on Earth than Lyoko. Though I, too, possessed the Keys to Lyoko, my position was much less…open to opportunity in opposing Xana. She was…useful in that sense."

"She was more than just useful," Jeremy muttered. Aelita shot him a glare. "Right, sorry. Continue."

"Anyways," Aelita said. "As for why I gave you a program that could only be used once, I had to be sure the program would not be tampered with prior to your use - case in point Odd - so compiling it immediately was necessary. As for why I did not simply make you another – which I am sure you are wondering – it took all the energy I had at that time to interfere as much as I did – never mind the energy I had to redirect to the materialization itself. By the time I had regained enough energy to try again, you had already concocted your own system, as imperfect as it was. Does that answer all your questions?"

"Yeah, I guess," Jeremy pursed his lips. "For now."

"I suppose that will have to do," Aelita sighed. Glancing forward, Aelita's nose wrinkled in disgust at the sight of the manhole that led to the sewers. "Looks like we are here."

The two kids lifted the metal cover off, finding it easier to do so together.

"After you," Jeremy held his hand out to the hole in the ground.

"How noble," Aelita commented flatly before descending into the ground, unable to hold back an expression of disgust at the smell wafting.

Jeremy sighed again. "What have I gotten myself into?" Jeremy asked himself, not for the first time in the last year, before he climbed down after the receding pinkette.

The remainder of the journey was spent in silence, neither of the two particularly focused on talking as they made their way through the sewers on their scooters, as well as afterwards, both being too wrapped up in their own thoughts by the time they exited the tunnels. When they finally reached the lab, the vault doors opened to reveal Yumi waiting for them, leaning against the far wall.

"Hey Jeremy," Yumi gave a small wave before nodding curtly. "Aelita."

"Yumi," Aelita replied, equally as cold.

Unsure how to alleviate the tension between the two girls, Jeremy returned Yumi's greeting as he took his seat in front of the supercomputer. Aelita heaved herself onto the rim of the holoprojector and sat there cross-legged. After a while, and seemingly with some internal debating, Yumi pushed herself off the wall and walked over to Jeremy, shooting a look at Aelita as she stood on the opposite side of Jeremy. For her part, the pinkette ignored Yumi's blatant mistrust.

* * *

"So, whaddya think everyone's been up to?" Odd asked, hands folded behind his head as he and Ulrich walked into the factory. Ulrich shrugged, hands in his pocket.

"Dunno," he said. "Though I bet the two Einsteins were probably working on some project or other."

"Yeah," Odd snorted in laughter, bringing his hands down. "Do you think Yumi managed to get them to do anything fun?"

"Guess we'll have to find out," Ulrich said as he grabbed one of the cables that hung from the roof of the factory, swinging down to the factory floor. Odd landed with a grunt next to him, and the two ran over to the elevator.

"Then let's not keep them waiting, shall we?" Odd smirked. Ulrich shook his head with a smile of his own as he pressed the down button on the elevator, causing the lift to jolt down sporadically before moving more smoothly.

"Man, you'd think with all the work Jeremy does down here he'd have time to fix the elevator," Odd noted as the lift creaked downwards. Again, Ulrich shrugged.

"I'm sure he has more important things to do. Besides," the brunette added with a smirk. "You know he would try to make some crazy upgrade or something, and you know how Jeremy is with upgrades."

"Yeah," Odd mock shivered. "There a real hit or a miss. Or a hit and a splat in this case."

"Exactly," Ulrich nodded as the lift lurched to a stop. "Why fix what isn't broken?"

Punching in the password, Ulrich opened the vault doors that led into the computer lab. Walking in, the two boys saw Jeremy sitting at the supercomputer, Yumi standing next to him, while Aelita sat on the other side of him, cross-legged on the rim of the holoprojector. At their entrance, Jeremy swiveled around.

"Hey, Ulrich, Odd," Jeremy said. Ulrich raised an eyebrow. The normally upbeat genius seemed rather subdued. "How was summer camp?"

"It was pretty fun," Ulrich shrugged, something he realized he'd been doing a lot of lately. "Hope two weeks wasn't too long without us?"

"Yeah, did you miss me a little, ladies?" Odd grinned at Yumi and Aelita. His grin faded slowly, however, as Aelita simply stared blankly at him.

"Not now, Odd," Yumi said.

Ulrich and Odd shared a look. Reaching a silent agreement, the latter spoke up.

"What's up? Is it Xana?"

"No, Xana's been quiet," Jeremy shook his head. "It's just…a lot happened since you've left."

"Okay, define 'a lot'," Ulrich said, keeping his voice level to hid the concern that was beginning to creep up.

"Yeah, are we talking about time travel 'a lot' or just the world's gonna end 'a lot'?" Odd chimed in, trying to lighten the mood as always.

"Odd, just stop," Yumi snapped.

Again, Odd and Ulrich shared a surprised look before the former held up his hands up in supplication.

"Okay, okay, fine," Odd said. "But do you guys want to spill the beans already?"

Jeremy shared a look with Yumi and Aelita, though neither of the two girls made eye contact with the other. Looking back at Odd and Ulrich, Jeremy rubbed his forehead.

"I guess there's no beating around the bush with this," he sighed. If Ulrich didn't know any better, he would have said Jeremy was on the verge of choking up. "You guys remember when Xana stole Aelita's memories two weeks ago?"

"Kinda hard to forget, Jer. I got crushed by the roof," Ulrich said. "Why? Did you find something new?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Jeremy bowed his head, and Ulrich saw that his friend was more than just stressed. He was heartbroken. Yumi lay a hand on his shoulder before turning to the boys.

"Yumi?" Ulrich asked, hazarding a glance over to Aelita, who seemed almost bored of the entire affair. Surely Jeremy and Aelita couldn't have broken up? Was that why Jeremy was sad? "What is it?"

Yumi worked her jaw for a moment, searching for the words. Finally, she decided there was no way to break the news gently.

"Aelita…," Yumi began. Across the room, Aelita perked up at her name. "Aelita didn't make it, Ulrich. She died."

Aelita's face went back to its former indifference.

For a moment, Odd and Ulrich just stood there. Finally, it was Odd who broke the silence.

"Uh, what!?" The eccentric blond exclaimed. "Is this a joke or am I seeing a ghost? I mean, I'm not the only one who sees Aelita sitting there, right?"

Odd pointed to the girl in question, who remained sitting, indifferent. In fact, Ulrich was beginning to get concerned by it. Why would she be ignoring them, only perking up at her name, unless…

"Jeremy?" Ulrich stepped forward. "Is she," he nodded at the pinkette. "A specter?"

Before Jeremy could speak up, Aelita spoke for him.

"No, I am not a specter," Aelita said, Odd starting at the sudden sound of her voice. The pinkette shot an annoyed glance in Yumi's direction. "And _I_ am Aelita. It was the other one who was nothing but an echo of me."

This was too much for Ulrich to process, and it seemed the same for Odd.

"Okay, maybe I missed an episode," Odd said. "But, _what_!?"

"Maybe you should start from the beginning, Jeremy," Ulrich suggested.

"That is unnecessary," Aelita snapped. "And a waste of time. It is simple: the Aelita you knew was not the real Aelita – I am. And when Xana stole her keys, she died. I then took control of her body and revived Lyoko."

Odd's mouth began to open in a question until Aelita snapped him an irritated glance.

"And before you ask any more stupid questions: yes, I remember everything she did and more. No, it was not Franz Hopper who has been helping you, it was me. And no, we are not friends."

Odd snapped his mouth shut, and Ulrich blinked in shock. This Aelita wasn't anything like the Aelita he had known. If anything, she was almost the opposite.

"You don't even know if he was going to ask those questions," Yumi said, addressing Aelita. It was now that Ulrich realized where Yumi's anger was directed. How much had he and Odd missed? Aelita gave Yumi a baleful look.

"It's Odd. Of course he was going to ask those questions," Aelita replied.

Yumi stepped towards Aelita, who slid off the rim of the projector to make some distance between her and the other girl, but before the situation could escalate, Jeremy held out his hands between the two.

"Alright, enough!" Jeremy almost shouted. Ulrich wondered how many times he'd had to do this. More than once, it seemed. "I'm sure Odd and Ulrich just need some time to process all of this, so now that we've got this out of the way, I have work to do. So, if everyone could leave, that'd be great."

Odd and Ulrich shared a concerned look. This was not the way either of them had expected to be greeted when they got back. Taking a breath, Ulrich called over to Jeremy, who had turned back to the computer screen.

"Okay, we'll go. You're right, me and Odd do need a little time to…process this," again Ulrich shared a glance with Odd before turning towards the girls. "You two coming?"

"Yeah, sure." "Obviously." Yumi and Aelita said, walking over to the elevator while staying as far apart as possible. Once inside, the two maintained the distance with Odd and Ulrich caught in between.

"You get Yumi; I'll get Aelita?" Odd whispered to Ulrich as he pressed the ascent button. The stoic brunette nodded, and the two separated, walking over to their respective girls as the lift doors opened.

Because of her larger stride and apparent determination to remain as far away from Aelita as possible, it wasn't until they were already on the bridge that Ulrich managed to catch up to Yumi.

"Hey, Yumi, wait up, will you?" Ulrich called, grabbing Yumi's right arm to bring her to a halt. The girl spun around at his touch, her face making clear her annoyance.

"What, Ulrich? I don't want to talk," Yumi said, trying to pull her arm from Ulrich's grasp. The brunette kept his grip firm, even if barely, preventing Yumi from walking away. His friend tried to wrench her arm away again. "Let go, will you?"

"Not until you tell me what's going on," Ulrich narrowed his eyes. "With you and Jeremy and Aelita. What is all of this?"

"Didn't you hear anything we said?" Yumi snarled, finally freeing herself from the shorter boy.

"Yeah, I heard," Ulrich remained as stoic as ever, opting to stick his hands in his pockets. Without saying anything, the two started walking along the bridge towards Yumi's house. It was a long walk, especially considering they were leaving their skateboards, but neither said anything on the matter.

"Then what more do you want?" Yumi shot him a resentful glance. Despite her hostility, Ulrich could have sworn that he almost heard her voice start to break.

"What I want is to figure this all out," Ulrich snapped. "How would you react if you came back and we told you that Aelita is dead even though Aelita is sitting right _there_ , except apparently she isn't Aelita, except that she is, and our Aelita isn't Aelita, but neither is this Aelita because our Aelita died, and,…augh!" Ulrich through his hands up in the air, venting his frustration. "Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"No, Ulrich!" Yumi turned on him with a ferocity that surprised him. He would have been scared if not for the tear that trickled down Yumi's cheek. "You don't get to say that! You weren't there! You didn't have to figure it out firsthand! You didn't have to be lied to only to figure out the person you thought you knew wasn't who they said they were! You didn't have to _figure_ out your friend was dead!" Yumi suddenly turned and punched a nearby streetlight. "I trusted her! I thought we were _friends!_ " She pressed her fist to her forehead. "I was such an _idiot_."

Ulrich was speechless. He didn't know how the others had found out the truth about Aelita, nor why he and Odd didn't know about it before they left, but it seemed like there was a lot Jeremy hadn't told them.

"Yumi," Ulrich began, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder. "How did you and Jeremy find out about Aelita? And why weren't Odd and I told sooner?"

Yumi let out a shuddering sigh.

"Because we didn't _know_ , Ulrich," Yumi said, anger fading from her voice. "We didn't figure it out until after you guys had left. Over a week after."

Ulrich wanted to ask more questions, but he wasn't sure how to say them, and so he remained silent, hopeful that Yumi would continue. And as it happened, with a sigh, she did.

"Do you remember how distant she was after our last mission?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich nodded then, realizing she couldn't see him, answered, "Yeah."

"Well, we thought just like you guys did: that she was just getting over having her memories back and, you know, everything else," Yumi continued. "And while you were gone I thought I'd try to get her out of her out of it."

From there, Yumi told Ulrich of how she had noticed a rift forming between Jeremy and Aelita, of how she had approached Aelita and tried to smooth things. She told him of how she had gotten Aelita to take a break from her work and play a game with her, of how they had bonded even when Aelita was acting so remote. And then she told them of what she and Jeremy discovered.

"So she had lied to you," Ulrich concluded quietly. "She lied to all of us. This whole time. Even before she met us – when she was posing as her father."

"Yeah," Yumi admitted half-heartedly. "She did."

It was still a lot to take in, but now that he had the whole picture, the grim reality of it fell into place.

"So she's really dead?" Ulrich broke the silence that had settled in. "Everything we've done has been for nothing."

"Yeah," Yumi closed her eyes, tears dripping now. "Yeah, it has."

Yumi began to walk down the street once more, letting Ulrich's hand slip off her shoulder. Before she had gone too far, Ulrich called out again.

"Yumi?" He said. The girl turned back to him.

"What, Ulrich?" She said miserably.

"Do you want me to walk with you?"

For a moment, it looked like Yumi was going to refuse, then she sighed.

"Yeah, that would be nice."

* * *

Elsewhere, Odd had caught up to Aelita, however it wasn't until they were past the sewers and in the forest of Kadic that they had a chance to talk. And as it turned out, it was Aelita who started.

"Alright, I know you're following me for a reason," Aelita gritted her teeth before spinning around to face Odd. "Spit it out."

"Yeesh, no need to be so pushy, princess!" Odd raised his hands in supplication. "I just want to talk."

"Talk?" Aelita frowned. "Was the explanation you were provided not enough for you, or is it mindless chatter you have come to partake in?"

"Hey, for one, I take offense to that," Odd frowned. Even his good-nature could wear thin. "And two, no it wasn't. I still don't understand what's going on."

"Then I propose you talk with someone else," Aelita retorted dismissively. "Because I can think of no more ways to simplify it further for you."

"I don't need it simple," Odd shot back. Aelita shook her head with an annoyed sigh and proceeded to walk away. Much to her chagrin, Odd followed. "I just need to know what happened. How do you think you would react if you were in my shoes?"

"From what I remember, I would probably suffocate," Aelita snapped. Odd ignored the insult.

"Come on. I mean, we come back and you guys tell us that you've been dead since our last mission, but you're not really, because the Aelita we knew wasn't Aelita. How would you take that?"

"Less ridiculously convoluted," Aelita stopped again, shooting a perplexed glance. "Still, you seem to understand what the situation is, so why is it you still have questions?"

"Look, I may know what's going on now, but I have no idea what happened!" Odd arms moved vigorously as he tried to put his feelings into words. "I mean, we left. Everything was fine. A couple weeks later and boom! We get this dropped on us. I mean, why didn't you guys tell us this before?"

Aelita seemed troubled for the first time since Odd had met her. She rubbed her cheek. Odd would have called her bashful if he didn't know any better. At last, she spoke, though her words were slow and hesitant.

"You were not informed because," her eyes didn't quite meet Odd's as she continued. "Because no one knew."

"Wait, because no one knew?" Odd echoed, starting to piece things together. "You mean, not even Jeremy?"

"Especially not Jeremy," Aelita replied, resuming her walk.

"So you were pretending the whole time," Odd breathed, walking alongside her. This time, she didn't try to make distance. "Just like you had said you pretended to be your father."

"Yes," Aelita admitted, her voice now noticeably subdued and calm. "Understand that you all were a risk I could not afford to take. At first, I was unsure of how to approach you. As far as you were concerned, you already had an Aelita, so I bid my time. I pretended to be Franz Hopper, helping you fight Xana as I could. I posed as who you knew as Aelita only because I could not risk you shutting off the supercomputer once you learned of her death." "

"Okay," Odd said slowly. "But what's your deal with Xana anyways? I mean, with our Aelita he was always going after her keys. Why didn't he try to take yours?"

"She had already attempted to steal the keys that I possess now." Aelita stated. "They were my…they were Franz Hopper's," Odd shot her a curious glance but said nothing, "When Xana killed him, I took them before she could. As I had no true form, they were out of her reach."

"Okay, okay, wait, wait," Odd clutched his forehead, eyes squeezed shut. "So you have the keys because you took them from your father after Xana killed him, but how did our Aelita have keys? Actually, wait, why was she made, if she's supposed to be an echo of you? Did Franz Hopper want to have twins or something?"

The air around them seemed to chill as Aelita's lips pursed. For a moment, Odd thought he could see a flash of pure loathing and contempt in Aelita's eyes. When she spoke, her voice was level and cold.

"I have answered enough questions," Aelita kept her eyes fixed on the path ahead. They were nearing the dormitory. "All you need to know is that the Aelita you know is dead, and Xana is my enemy as well as yours." She pushed open the doors to the dormitory and started to climb up the stairs. "Now I believe it is policy that those of the opposite sex are not permitted on each other's level past curfew."

Aelita attempted to move her way up the stairs and to the girl's room, but before she could get far Odd grabbed her by the arm.

"I said I have answered enough questions," Aelita scowled, jerking her arm away.

"Good, because I'm done asking them," Odd replied with a scowl of his own. "And just for the record, we would have kept the supercomputer on for you just like we did for Aelita. You didn't have to lie to us. To Jeremy."

For a moment, the two glared at each other. Then Aelita turned and walked up the stairs. For a moment, Odd just stood there, juggling between confusion and frustration. It seemed like he had almost gotten her to open up only for her to slam shut again. Eventually, he just shook his head.

"And I thought I had it bad enough having to deal with just Sissi," Odd sighed, grabbing the handrail as he made his way to his room. "I wonder if Ulrich got anything out of Yumi?"

 **Post-Story Author's Note: Well, there it is. Hope it met at least some of your expectations. As always, leave a review if you want, every little bit helps, be it praise or critique. And of course, I hope you will enjoy Broken Heart Part 2.**


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